Doubts about the shoo in? Nooo, we can't have Republican Establishment doubts now. Not when Romney's sewn up the nomination with only a caucus and one open primary, so we're told. Not when Romney's the only 'electable' Republican to defeat Obama. Now they're gonna adjust that skipping needle? I thought he was our only chance? Up until now, the main objective of the Ruling Class Establishment has been, as Rush accurately reiterates, "to vanquish any possibility of a conservative nominee." And now the 'gulps' come, as the campaign rhetoric to secure their nominee has grown stale and begun to subside following wins from the first few states. 'Now' our media is going to recognize the Republican Party's problem in defeating Obama with their hand-picked candidate? This is what moderate polish above conservative principle gets you. Geniuses...
From Jonah Goldberg of National Review: "Romney's Authenticity Problem"
Mitt Romney is the most improbable of presidential candidates: a weak juggernaut.
He is poised to sweep every primary contest — a first for a non-incumbent. And yet, in Republican ranks there’s an abiding sense that he should be beatable — and beaten.
It’s not that Romney doesn’t have fans. His events in New Hampshire were packed to the rafters and felt like general-election rallies. He’s surging in polls in South Carolina and Florida.
And yet the non-Mitt mood just won’t go away. Indeed, it’s intensifying. One reason for that is people are starting to doubt whether he is in fact the best candidate to beat President Obama.
Every four years, pundits and activists talk about how cool it would be to have a brokered convention. This is the first time I can remember where people say it may be necessary.
From John Podhoretz at The New York Post: "Never has a winner looked so beaten"
Perplexing but true: Mitt Romney is on the glide path to the most easily secured nomination a Republican presidential candidate has ever had — while being one of the weakest major candidates either party has ever seen.
...Republicans will vote for Romney in the primaries...But nobody loves him. No one is inspired by him. He cuts an impressive figure and is clearly very intelligent, but he is a man without an ideological core.
Claiming he should be president because he knows how to run a business may be the least stirring message any candidate has seized upon since Michael Dukakis foundered in 1988 by claiming he could bring “competence” to the White House.
So he will win the nomination in a walk. But he will be beaten and battered by the time he crosses the finish line in November — though he may well do so in first place.
Because, while his own record is problematic, Barack Obama’s is worse.
From Bill Kristol of the Weekly Standard: "From Bain to Main"
On the other, Mitt Romney’s claim throughout his campaign that his private sector experience almost uniquely qualifies him to be president is also silly. Does he really think that having done well in private equity, venture capital, and business consulting—or even in the private sector more broadly—is a self-evident qualification for public office?
Bain Capital shouldn’t be demonized. It may not even deserve to be criticized. But in laying out a way forward, conservatives might remember that Bain Capital isn’t capitalism, that capitalism by itself isn’t freedom, and that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in the Gospel of Wealth.
Now they tell us!
ADDENDUM: Related, but definately NOT an establishment pundit or publication, Peter Ferrara's American Spectator piece speaks volumes: "RINO Romney is the least electable". And since I'm there, if anyone needs a refresher on Angelo Codevilla's extensive Spectator piece about America's Ruling Class, here's the link (I'd strongly suggest the book as well!).
