Here's an excerpt:
. . . the question of who had the best Super Tuesday is a matter of fact, not opinion: Romney did.
He won six of 10 states, including Ohio, the night’s marquee contest. His win rate was higher than John McCain’s in 2008 on a night that all but clinched the GOP nomination. He has won about 40 percent of the delegates he needs to win the nomination and has more than twice as many as Santorum, his nearest competitor. And the party’s new system requiring the proportional awarding of delegates, though it has slowed Romney’s coronation, now makes it essentially impossible for anybody to catch him.
The fact that Romney is still viewed to be in danger of losing the nomination says less about him than it does about the media. We have turned him into Candidate Sisyphus, providing him with a plentiful supply of boulders to push uphill. First it was make-or-break New Hampshire, then must-win Florida, then do-or-die Michigan and game-changing Ohio. Each time Romney prevails, we assign him a new test.
Click here to read the entire column.
1 comment:
Romney will be the nominee and I think, deep down, the media knows that.
But I think the media also sees (rightly) that conservatives don't love Romney nearly to the extent that they loved Reagan and Bush II. Conservatives may be voting for him, but they aren't galvanized by him. They don't want to run through a wall for him the way they did for Reagan and Bush II. And that has historically been bad news for Republicans in Presidential elections.
Conservatives weren't excited by Bob Dole in '96 and he got beat convincingly by Bill Clinton. Conservatives weren't excited by Gerald Ford and he lost to Jimmy Carter (after nearly getting picked off by Reagan in the primary). Conservatives weren't excited by Bush I, and when he had a much stronger opponent in his re-election bid (plus Ross Perot to siphon off votes), he lost to Bill Clinton.
Conversely, Reagan and Bush II excited conservatives and both won two terms, the latter despite having at best marginal approval ratings in his re-election year.
Maybe this election will be different. Maybe the perception of Romney's competence (and Obama's lack thereof) will be enough to get Romney to the White House. But that would make this election different from pretty much every other in your lifetime, let alone mine.
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