That didn’t take long. Governor Rick Perry has shot up to a double-digit lead over Mitt Romney in the GOP presidential race. According to the most recent poll by Scott Rasmussen, Perry is drawing support from 29 percent of likely Republican primary voters, Mitt Romney is drawing 18 percent, and Michele Bachmann is drawing 13 percent.

This poll reflects several things, I think.

The first is that Perry appears to be quite a formidable political figure — a man with an impressive record to tout (take a look at this and some undeniable political skills (he has never lost a race). Second, support for the previous (nominal/perceived) front-runner, Mitt Romney, looks to be weak. It’s clear that GOP voters have not, at least until now, settled on a favorite candidate. And third, Perry’s entry into the field is likely to do substantial damage to Rep. Bachmann, who until now was the Tea Party favorite and the most likely alternative to Governor Romney. By most accounts, Perry outperformed Bachmann during their speeches in Iowa earlier this week.

Governor Perry’s entrance into the race has been (with the exception of his unfortunate comment about Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke) impressive. He has certainly scrambled the field. And at this moment, still five months away from the Iowa caucus, Governor Perry has established an impressive lead.

Whether he stays there are not is impossible to know. There is nothing quite like experiencing the intensity of a presidential campaign. And there will be events and moments that none of us, including the candidates, can possibly anticipate. How they do will determine who emerges and who will ultimately square off against the president. But for now – in the middle part of August 2011, just four days after he declared his candidacy for president — Rick Perry is at the top of the GOP heap.