In Brief: Exit Santorum

The world may never agree how powerful Dan Savage's Sword of Damocles is, or was.  If it had been anything to brag about, would Santorum's surge have happened at all?  Or was that more about Mittens?  Did the Republicans' far right wing get a good enough look at Gingrich and decide to default to the last best Not Mormon hope (minus Ron Paul, of course, which... yeah, no)?  Of course, this all implies that Santorum is deserving of the credit of creating so many questions.  He's not.  The answers are, respectively: yes, yes, and probably. 

That means Mittens now, finally, gets to move on to a real test: the V.P.  And it's a tough test--the only presidential decision a nominee has to make, really--the only probable outcomes of which are "not bad" or "you are really bad at this."  Mittens will need someone of the appropriate ideological rigidity.  Someone with foreign policy cred.  Someone with a proven (if damaged) electoral record.  And someone with a passing familiarity with connecting with human beings.  Those qualities will be hard to find in any one person.  Particularly when you eliminate all the guys that figure they're better off waiting until 2016.  And no matter who he picks, it's still Romney the Uninspiring + (Right Wing Fright Night T.B.D.) against the best campaigner of our lifetimes. 

Predicting the general at this stage is a mug's game, vulnerable to sundry unforeseeable events and scandals.  However.  Obama will take the election.  But he will not be the winner.  Republicans have effectively shut down the government these last few years.  At the expense of serious electoral prospects, sure, but it's not like the guys they wanted were trying out this time around, anyway.  Or that they care much about governance; not when there are talking head positions and speaking engagements to angle for.  No, they'll take four more years of Obama, perhaps gladly, just for the chance to shut him down all over again and, most importantly, raise revenues and increase buy rates.  That's right, the winner of 2012, the people who will be crowing, screeching, snarling, gnashing teeth, and slurping on the attention whore pipeline for another four years: Fox News.