Rick Perry got more bad news today as pundits continue to pile on the Governor's faltering campaign.

The latest embarrassment? A new poll has Perry trailing Herman Cain among registered Republican voters ... in Texas.

A University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll has Cain leading the state's GOP voters with 27 percent support to Perry's 26 percent. That's within the margin of error, of course, but if Perry can't even count on the state that he runs to come through for him, what can he count on?

The last thing Perry needs right now is more questions about his viability. He's already taking heat for his lousy debate performances (and his suggestion he might skip out on them), his recent latching on to the birther issue, and then this weekend, a highly edited video of a New Hampshire speech showed Perry acting slightly goofy and animated in his delivery.

So is Perry — who was the flavor of the moment just a few short weeks ago — really "all hat and no cattle"? He had a reputation as a shrewd, cutthroat campaigner in Texas, but we've yet to see any of that bite on the national stage. The idea of inevitably is crucial for any candidate and the only that seems inevitable right now is that Rick Perry is toast.

Does he have any tricks up his sleeve that will enable him to turn it around? Or is he just wasting everybody's time (and money) chasing a doomed dream? As the video above seems to prove, Perry is not ready for the national stage, where down charm alone is not enough. And it doesn't seem to be doing him or the Republican any good by hanging on.

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Dashiell Bennett