If you had asked me a month ago who was going to win the GOP nomination, I would have said that Romney had no chance in teabagger hell of winning it due to his strange "thread-the-needle" tactic of defending Romneycare while calling ACA the epitome of governmental tyranny.
In fact, his infamous health care speech a few weeks ago might have been an early nail in the coffin since he came out and defended his health care bill and mandate rather than grovelling for forgiveness at the alter of the Tea Party. Jed Lewison had the wrap up of how well it was "received" in the conservative rump.
However, I think that no amount of squealing is going to stop the tea party from getting stuck with him:
1. Huckabee, the only GOP candidate topping him in current polls, quit to keep his multi-million dollar Fox News paycheck.
2. Mitch Daniels, whom the DC village seemed to regard as top tier though I never could figure out why, was vetoed by his wife.
3. Huntsman, another universally regarded "moderate" by the DC village, will never escape these two pictures:
4. Tim Pawlenty has even Matt Lauer challenging him about charisma as seen on the Today show this morning.
5. Herman Cain? Ron Paul? Santorum?
Quite frankly, all the teabaggers needed to do was field someone somewhat competent and not foaming at the mouth and Romney would have been history in GOP primary and their candidate could have been the one with the privilege of being crushed by Obama next year.
Now, having failed at that, they're just starting to realize that the GOP field is starting to solidify with no one really commanding the Anti-Romney label. And it will NOT go over well.
Romney will not compete in Iowa but he should win NH, NV, and a good number of the other early primary states, where everyone will see the writing on the wall. However, the teabaggers being what they are, will DEMAND his VP pick be someone of their choosing or else they would threaten to split off and form a suicidal third party just to spite him.
Who does that leave? Palin's too damaged and already had her shot. Nor do I think she'd be willing to give up the millions she's been raking in since then.
That pretty much leaves the Teabagger queen herself:
The eyes will not be denied at spot on the ticket. My guess is she may well win Iowa outright and do well enough in South Carolina, but she'll come up short.
Overall, I think it will become quite clear that when this ticket goes up against Obama in 2012, it will be somewhat similar to when I, as a 16 year-old, was mistakenly assigned to a hockey league of 13 and 14 year-olds.
Can't wait to see how that turns out.