Romney supporters are counting on that line of thinking being flawed. Their hope is that Republicans who have all but prayed for a different candidate than Romney – from Daniels to John Thune to Paul Ryan – will eventually reconcile themselves to the former Massachusetts governor as their safer general election bet.

The expectation, said one Romney fundraiser, is that “a lot of the money people, these pro-business money guys, will probably be more favorable to somebody like Mitt than they would be to somebody like Perry.”

“[Perry’s] rhetoric gives pause to people who want to see someone in power that has a certain amount of reserve to them. When you’re president, you can’t all of a sudden take back that you attacked Vladimir Putin,” the fundraiser said. “Electability’s a big factor with bundlers.”

So is momentum, though, and one former senior aide to President George W. Bush gave Romney only a short window to turn back the Perry surge.

“I believe that if Perry survives September that most people will jump to Perry,” the aide said. “They’ll see him as lead dog and he’ll have shaken off the notion that he’s a complete boob.”…

Still, some in the GOP fundraising community raise a disappointing scenario for both frontrunners: the possibility that Republican donors, frustrated with the lack of a candidate they really love, will simply wait until the general election to get involved.