Rick Perry supposedly plans to upstage the Iowa straw poll on Saturday with a speech that “will remove any doubt about his White House intentions,” as the Politico story phrases it.

The strategy here is clearly to compete with Iowa rather than compete in Iowa:

It’s uncertain whether Saturday will mark a formal declaration, but Perry’s decision to disclose his intentions the same day as the Ames straw poll—and then hours later make his first trip to New Hampshire— will send shockwaves through the race and upend whatever results come out of the straw poll.

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Whether the Ames winner is Michele Bachmann, Tim Pawlenty or someone else, they will immediately have to compete for Perry for attention in the aftermath of his kickoff, particularly given his plans to visit Iowa.

This is a pretty good idea. But I do think the understanding of the move has been slightly off-target so far. Perry is not trying to make the public forget about the winner of the straw poll. In fact, to have the intended effect, Perry wants the Iowa straw poll to be magnified in the public’s mind. The goal of his competing announcement is to highlight the winner of the straw poll at the same time he makes a (sure to be) well-covered speech.

Perry wants to say: Look–here are your two choices. The reason is because his chief rival, Mitt Romney, is unlikely to win the straw poll. That means an effective Perry campaign ploy will elevate the winner (most likely Bachmann) to a space that should be occupied by Romney. The news cycle will pit Perry against the Not Romney candidate.

The report states Perry may not officially announce his candidacy at the speech. Why not? Because this is a two-step process to becoming the Not Romney candidate. First, he must outshine the winner of the Iowa straw poll even though he’s not yet a candidate. Then, when he officially launches his candidacy, he will begin the campaign as the Not Romney candidate, giving him plenty of time to challenge Romney for frontrunner status without having to go through Bachmann first.

In all likelihood, Perry wants to share the media spotlight on Saturday with the winner of the straw poll. He will assume–and he is probably correct–the comparison will work in his favor among GOP primary voters.