There really wasn't a lot of talent on that stage, was there?
I'll admit, I'm one of the dopes who is surprised that Republicans are on the brink of choosing the father of Obamacare as their presidential nominee, but without an extraordinary turn of events, that's exactly what's going to happen.
According to the latest Gallup tracking poll, Mitt Romney's total support isn't all that high in absolute terms, but with the backing of 37 percent of Republican primary voters his support is nearly equal to the 39 percent who support one of the next three candidates combined and is 23 points ahead of his nearest rival.
Although Romney is in a commanding position, viewed in historical prospective, his level of support is actually relatively weak. His campaign likes to brag that he's the first Republican to win both Iowa and New Hampshire, but his support is significantly lower than John Kerry's was after Kerry managed the same feat. In a Gallup poll taken the weekend after his New Hampshire primary victory, Kerry had the support of 49 percent of Democrats. Two weeks later, he was at 64 percent. And unlike Romney, who has been at around 20 percent, in the weeks before Iowa and New Hampshire, Kerry was still in single digits.
So Mitt Romney is about to become the Republican nominee, but it's not because there's tremendous enthusiasm about him from Republicans. It's because a growing number of Republicans are deciding he's their least bad nominee—and because no other theoretically viable candidate will be able to raise the money to compete with him.