UNWANTED: Candidate Romney

As we approach Super Tuesday the Mitt Romney campaign appears close to inevitable having finished first in the State of Washington where some had thought oddball candidate Ron Paul might win.  Rick Santorum having no charisma of his own and with social values from the 1950s has not taken off. Newt Gingrich is history and not taken seriously anymore.  While there will continue to be bumps ahead on the road for Mitt Romney it is clear he will be the Republican Candidate when it is over. He seems to be the least wanted of the candidates but he who has the most money wins usually. His mix of opinions which always seem to change may make him more electable than the more extreme and ideological choices.  In November we will see a choice not of values but of images where Romney may defeat Barack Obama if he can get the right wing Christian and mostly anti-Mormon base to show up while picking off enough independent voters. If Mr. Obama does nothing at all he is still likely to win re-election. With a good campaign it may be a landslide re-election.

Republicans Topsy Turvy Again

                                               Rick Santorum says: Please don't Google me.

Once again we can not say the Republican race for the Presidential Nomination is over.  After my last post Newt Gingrich fell from grace again and it looked like Romney was back in first place. Since then Rick Santorum, by default, came into favor for a short time.  Most recently Ron Paul finished a close second to Mitt Romney in the Maine Caucuses. Romney seems inevitable but unwanted. It now looks like it will drag on until June before he has it won.

Newt Gingrich Reborn and Reinflated

We thought it was over and Mitt Romney had it all sewed up until events this past week.  Newt Gingrich despite his heavy baggage has new wind in his sails and is back in contention.  Iowa was taken from Mitt Romney in the vote certification and now Rick Santorum is the winner there but that will not help Rick. The other Rick, Texas Governor Rick Perry has withdrawn and now supports Newt.  Meanwhile Mitt Romney with poor debate performance followed by his continuing to refuse to release tax returns while saying he only earned a small amount of money from speaker's fees (a mere $400,000 which would be a lot of money to an average person) last year. Further to that it came out that Mr. Romney has money stashed away in the Cayman Islands, a tax haven, and only pays 15% income tax while most people pay double that percentage. Romney is not the man anymore. He has fallen while Newt is reborn and reinflated. He is forgiven his numerous indiscretions because he says he is sorry, and he is in a very flawed field of candidates where he stands out as the best and the brightest. Maybe the third wife will become the First Lady. Michelle Obama need not pack up her family yet.

Mitt the Man

Rick Santorum who lost the Iowa Caucuses to Mitt Romney by just 8 votes is now forgotten again as Romney wins the New Hampshire Primary by a large margin. Now his Republican opponents are trying to paint the former Massachusetts Governor as a "vulture capitalist" who "likes to fire people" and through his company Bain Capital made huge profits at the expense of the companies in which he invested and the 15,000 workers who lost their jobs.  Newt Gingrich whose own grand ambitions were squashed by Romney advertising is now trying to destroy Romney with help from Texas Governor Rick Perry. There is no hope for any of the present candidates to catch up to Romney so unless someone new is able to join in the Race it will be Obama versus Romney in November.

Like the Grinch the Gingrich was Foiled

Newt Gingrich was on the rise heading into the holiday season but everything he did before caught up to him with tough negative campaigning against him.  As Republican Conservatives are running out of alternatives to Mitt Romney their last hope in Iowa is Rick Santorum.   President Obama is smiling.