on the eve of the most important state primary since the last one and until the next one
We’re a week from the unthinkable happening. The inevitability of the Mitt Romney nomination might be torpoedoed by a loss in Michigan. Given the circumstances, I don’t know if a Romney near miss counts as a win in that “Comeback Kid Clinton New Hampshire 1992” mode, or if Romney is required to win whole-sale. Romney’s expecting a loss, and is hoping to do the Clinton routine.
There’s a week for the Republican Establishment to get this thing back on track. They have help. Their competition is Santorum. So Romney is slicing that huge Santorum lead. The Romney creep in to victory possibility is the result of the same thing that brought Santorum so far ahead in the first place — um… a lot of rhetorical bombast that’s bait for the boobs, but leaves the sane wanting to take a step back from the abyss.
Of course it is odd Santorum came ahead to the non-Romney slot. The Fall of the House of Romney, brittle though the house always stood, came out of South Carolina — when Gingrich fired off some rhetorical bombast out of the Occupy Movement. Romney is paying a ridiculously low tax rate. The absurdity is that Candidate Romney proposes policies that would lower his tax rate a tad, where Gingrich proposes policies that would lower Romney’s tax rate drastically.
An interesting item in The Nation. A writer said Ron Paul’s “Progressive” defenders had a “man crush”, and pointed to the overwhelming maleness of them. It’s interesting. It brought out a series of letters, as noted “all male” — unfortunatley not online. They struck familiar notes in both directions (not going to be elected but good to get anti-war views out, and good god are his libertarian economics a nightmare)– I don’t think it takes too much a splurge into the archives to find favorable Ron Paul notices — blah blah, Alexander Cockburn needling Democrats, blah blah — Hey! Gitmo, remember that? Two letters stand out: one positing Ron Paul as another Calvin Coolidge — a disaster, and the other from the grandson of Wendell Willkie — pointing out he was supported by people like Father Coughlin and then came was a strong advocate for Jewish immigration after the election. Actually I don’t know what Willkie’s point is here, but it is interesting to see the grandson of Wendell Willkie speak out about Ron Paul.