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" (Optional soundtrack to this blog post...)      Let us now look at the state of play regarding Willard Romney, former governor of Massachusetts and Piltdown Man of American politics. (It is a damn sight better than opening the week by discussing the state of play regarding a certain professional American football team of my casual acquaintance, the owner of which invited Rush Limbaugh to sit in his owner&amp;#039;s box in yesterday&amp;#039;s America-Fk-Yeah! Fest in Indianapolis and reaped the righteous whirlwind as a result. Bob, how could you?) Unquestionably, Willard had a good weekend. He got himself a thumping win in Nevada (more from there here and here), which seems to be further deflating the dirigible that is the Gingrich campaign, and also driving N. Leroy Gingrich, Definer of Civilization&amp;#039;s Rules and Leader (perhaps) of the Civilizing Forces, completely around the bend. (That late-night press conference on Saturday looked like a hostage tape.) There was some indication that the Bible-banging set in the Republican electorate might be slowly, but surely, acclimating itself to voting for the leader of an un-Christian cult. (What the hell, they made their peace with us Papists, after all.) Life is good. Nevertheless, as the pall of Romney&amp;#039;s inevitability begins to descend like a great cloud of methane upon the nation, things are also looking a little bit hinky. First, there was the matter of shit-canning Brett O&amp;#039;Donnell, apparently for the crime of being credited with turning around Willard&amp;#039;s debate performances. (O&amp;#039;Donnell is rather like the Johnny Sain of debate coaches; he managed to make Michele Bachmann look reasonably sane on stage through most of the early campaign, and it was his work with Romney before the Florida primary to which people pointed as to why Willard&amp;#039;s skills sharpened so noticeably.). This was the classic top-down corporate lickspittle move \u2014 fire anyone who makes the boss look bad even while making him look good. This is what people get when they say they want the country &amp;quot;run like a business.&amp;quot; Then there are the increasing indications that Willard&amp;#039;s adoption of full wingnut may not be simply a tactic through which he can get the nomination but, rather, a statement of the fact that he&amp;#039;s finally settled on a political persona after all these years. This is the new, permanent Romney. He will veto the DREAM Act and get tough with the people who used to trim his hedges. He will start a trade war with China and, if necessary, a real one with Iran. He is \u2014 no kidding, pinky-swear-to-Mormon-Jesus \u2014 completely pro-life. He wants a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution, and also one defining marriage as being between a man and a woman. That&amp;#039;s the new Romney product line, and it&amp;#039;s selling. Sooner or later, every salesman comes to believe his own bullshit \u2014 Arthur Miller got famous by illustrating this very point \u2014 and it appears that Willard has been trafficking in the Neanderthal for so long that his brow is lowering by the hour. And the other members of the tribe are picking up on this and banging their sticks on the rocks in celebration. First we have Ann Coulter, superannuated television harpy, desperately groping for another 15 minutes, coming out and displaying what she claims are Willard&amp;#039;s nuts in a Mason jar: Coulter added that she was once at a fundraiser and approached Romney just before she was leaving the event. &amp;quot;I just wanted to go up to him and tell him, &amp;#039;You owe me and you better be as right-wing a president as I&amp;#039;m telling everybody you&amp;#039;re going to be,&amp;#039;&amp;quot; Coulter said.  Be proud, Willard. But, beyond television freak-show performers, there&amp;#039;s some indication that the folks in the hinterlands are buying the Romney that Willard has come to sell: Obama&amp;#039;s health-care reform law also fits into tea party views on immigration. Much of the group&amp;#039;s indictment of the president rests on the fantasy that he wants to give free health care \u2014 not to mention a blanket amnesty and citizenship privileges \u2014 to undocumented immigrants, thus securing millions more votes for himself and the Democratic Party.... No surprise, then, that Romney has constantly declared his determination to get rid of ObamaCare the minute he moves into the White House. Got a view on an important issue of national policy that&amp;#039;s completely untethered from reality? Willard&amp;#039;s your boy, nudge-nudge, wink-wink. It is possible that there has been a more shameless panderer in the history of American politics than this guy, but it&amp;#039;s hard to think of one offhand. I watched him run against Ted Kennedy for the Senate, and in his one campaign for governor, and this creature I see wandering the landscape bears as much resemblance to that guy as Salt Lake City does to Tallahassee. He knows now that, if Ginrgich wants to remain a credible candidate, he only has Super Tuesday left. If Willard can cut him up just a little in the South, and then if he can win elsewhere, the whole thing is over. Which means Willard&amp;#039;s got to bring his new self to Alabama and Georgia. Imagine the pandering he can do there. The mind, she boggles. MORE FROM THE WEEKEND: Live at the Kosher Caucus, Romney&amp;#039;s Nevada Pitch, and the Everlasting Ron Paul (Illustration by DonkeyHotey via Flickr/Special to The Politics Blog) "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a12655/mitt-romney-road-to-nomination-6651974/?src=rss>