GOP race is Perry-Romney showdown; 'She's the 3rd candidate' on Astini News

Michelle Bachmann's former campaign manager called the Republican race for the White House a showdown between Mitt Romney and Rick Perry.

Ed Rollins, who stepped down over the weekend, told CNN that Texas Gov. Rick Perry's entrance into the race last month had stolen some of the Minnesota congresswoman's thunder.

Perry jumped into the race on Aug. 13, the same day Bachmann won an Iowa straw poll.

"Legitimately, it's a Romney-Perry race," Rollins told CNN's Anderson Cooper on Monday. "I think she's the third candidate at this point in time, which is way different and better than we thought when we started this thing.

"She's very much in this thing," he added.

Rollins was a contributor to CNN before joining the Bachmann campaign.

His comments came one day before a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll showed Perry vaulting past Romney to become the favorite among GOP voters.

Bachmann was in fourth behind Texas Rep. Ron Paul.

Rollins remarks - along with the announcement that his top deputy was quitting the campaign - raised questions about Bachmann's chances heading into the crucial fall stretch before the 2012 presidential primaries.

The departures were first reported by Politico on Sunday.

Rollins, who ran former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's bid for the GOP nomination in 2008, said he fully supported Bachmann, but he was simply out of gas.

"I wish I was 40 years old, but I'm not," Rollins told Politico. "I'm 68 years old; I had a stroke a year and a half ago. I'm worn out."

Rollins said he had "great affection" for Bachmann and would travel with her to California for a GOP debate on Wednesday.

Bachmann spokeswoman Alice Stewart said Rollins' move was expected.

"The plan all along has been to restructure things after the [Iowa] straw poll. Ed has been - and will always be - a valuable part of the campaign," she told Politico.

Rollins' resigning deputy, David Polyansky, was not staying on.

A GOP source told Politico that Polyansky's decision came over "strategic differences" with the former Minnesota congresswoman.

"I wish Michele nothing but the best, and anyone who underestimates her as a candidate does so at their own peril," he told Politico.

Campaign strategist Keith Nahigian would become the new interim campaign manager, Bachmann's team said.

Meanwhile, the NBC/WSJ poll also showed that Barack Obama's job approval rating has sunk to the lowest point of his presidency.

Just 44% of responders approve of Obama, while 19% of responders said the country was headed in the right direction.

The poll also found that 54% said the president was unlikely to bounce back into favor, and 44% said they'd vote for a generic Republican candidate while over 40% who said they'd vote for Obama.

"Obama is no longer the favorite to win re-election," Democratic pollster Peter D. Hart told NBC News.

With News Wire Services