Here’s key context on the impact of Rick Perry’s entry into the GOP primary contest.

The key thing in my book is that Romney, so far, has been able to leverage the weak GOP field to spin up an inevitability narrative, mainly by ignoring the other candidates and focusing his attacks on President Obama. Perry knocks that whole house down.

Last week, we compiled a list of all the prominent and elected Republicans who dismissed default by the U.S. government as not that big of a deal — a shocking stance that Standard & Poor’s says contributed to its downgrade of U.S. debt.

We asked for help from TPM readers in fleshing out the list and keeping it from vanishing down the memory hole– and you delivered. Here’s the updated and expanded list.

Thanks for your help.