Ah, Iowa. Home of early early political foolishness, and tonight the host to the first real Republican Presidential debate of the 2012 election campaign.

Except, of course, that Governor Goodhair won’t be there. Nope, Texas Governor Rick Perry isn’t officially planning to announce his candidacy until Saturday.

Perry is an opposition researcher’s dream candidate, what with that secession thing, the below-minimum-wage job creation thing, the executions thing (232 during his time in office, far exceeding the 152 GWB presided over), and the Cameron Todd Willingham cover-up thing.

Of course, if Perry were there, I suspect none of the debate moderators would ask him about any of those things.