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The Fix:

Texas Gov. Rick Perry stands at a now-or-never moment for his presidential campaign, teetering between second-tier status and emerging as the prime alternative to former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney in the nomination fight.

There’s little question that circumstances have provided Perry with an opening that is almost too good to be true. Just as his inexplicable flirtation with birtherism raised further questions about his readiness for primetime — and earned him our “Worst Week in Washington” award — a path to a Perry comeback has presented itself.

To wit:

* Allegations of sexual harassment against Herman Cain have surfaced that not only changed the focus of the news media in an instant but also threatened to derail Perry’s main competition for the anti-Romney slot.

* The Perry money machine — both his campaign and his super PAC — has begun to assert itself, spending heavily in Iowa and South Carolina with ads that paint him as a proven conservative leader.

* Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, another potential Iowa impediment to the re-rise of Perry, appears to be adrift. Her support in the latest Des Moines Register poll dropped drastically — 22 percent in late June, 8 percent now — and her campaign is fighting off talk that she should drop out of the race.

Add those three things together and it becomes clear that Perry will almost certainly not get a better chance than this one to recoup much of the ground he lost with a listless and underwhelming campaign over the past few months.