South Carolina has been tough on marginal Republican presidential candidates. Jon Huntsman left the race before Monday’s debate in Myrtle Beach and Rick Perry has reportedly told supporters he will leave the race today.

There are reports, unconfirmed, that there is behind the scenes maneuvering to reduce the number of social conservative candidates to one so that branch of the party can coalesce around one candidate in a stop Romney attempt.

That’s a shame because I rather liked Perry’s debate one-liners Monday and was looking forward to more from the CNN debate in Charleston tonight.