simi valley, california, we re actually speaking to you just beneath the fuselage of air force one inside the giant air force one pavilion here, a beautiful building where in just a short time we ll be underway with the fourth debate of the gop political season, but notably for this season, the first debate featuring the new entrant, who s already the new front-runner in the gop race. governor rick perry of the state of texas. i ll be moderating tonight along with john harris of the website politico and here covering it all with the rest of us and leading our political team, our political director and chief white house correspondent chuck todd. so, chuck, some obvious things make tonight different. as i say, not only is rick perry the latest candidate to join the rac race, he s already at the head of the back. you could say a funny thing happened on the way to mitt romney s stroll to the nomination. remember, there was at one point where we thought we were going to have a s