WASHINGTON--Texas Gov. Rick Perry may skip what was to have his presidential debate debut because of the Texas wildfires. The leading 2012 GOP rivals face off at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif. on Wednesday in a session sponsored by NBC and Politico.

Perry jumped off the campaign trail to deal with the fires back home. On the CBS "Early Show" on Tuesday, Perry was asked if he would be at the debate.

Said Perry, "I don't know. That's a fluid situation at the moment. So, again, I go back to we're going to be taking care of the folks here. I've got a great team of people to work with. That's one of the things I've been blessed with for 10 years, whether it's emergency management folks or whether it's a lieutenant governor that is very adept at being a partner and working together. So we're really focused on the events at hand.

"And the other side of that is we're pretty good about multitasking as well, whether it was Hurricane Ike or Katrina, as we brought a lot of people in from Louisiana back over the years. We can do more than one thing pretty well in the state of Texas."