They say it is over. “They” is the Romnoids. But they have been saying it was over before it ever began. Now Newt, bedraggled and forlorn, seems to be in sullen agreement or at least he is not up to energetic resistance, which amounts to agreement. If we needed any more evidence that Newt has a half-life, a shelf-life and an inner-life inconsistent with the rigors of the Presidency, this is it. It seems Newt had begun to believe his own press. Santorum took a much harsher beating but unlike Newt, it was what he expected. Unshocked, he and his 13% will march on. If Newt were an ordinary party loyalist, he would back Mitt immediately hoping for Commerce Secretary to the detriment of the party and the nation. It seems he might be infantile enough though to consider his dignity over his advancement; always the calculation. If Gingrich can demonstrate a weak pulse and continue harrowing Romney it will be the finest service he could ever perform for the nation (and Rick Santorum), not that Newt should gain the office. Romney is the great threat at the moment and the Gingrich Blunderbuss is the only plausible weapon at hand but the powder, while voluminous, has grown damp in the Florida humidity. What if Mitt has succeeded, as of yesterday, to make his nomination a done deal?

Romney has spoken and conducted himself as if he had the one-and-only ticket to the nomination for three years. There is little reason to fault him for his public confidence. It is the habit of every candidate and should be. Of course he had the same confidence in 2008, a fact ill recalled. Those of us who have been dubious of the Governor from Massachusetts have done our best to explain why he is unelectable in a tactical sense and unsupportable for any would-be Constitutionalist but it seems that parochialism and name recognition have (nearly) carried the day. The gunslingers laugh, drink and swap resumes’, the bastards, but they have been right. No need to gaze into a deep, hypothetical future to divine what this will mean. Mitt has been grand-poobah of the Republican party for years now, Reince Priebus notwithstanding. If you are a Right-leaning officeholder or voter, it’s Willard’s World and you are just living in it.

An eager, early citizen of Willardworld is one Chris Christie, sitting Governor of New Jersey and yes he sits AROUND the State, she being petite and he quite girthy but that is no mark against him. The true black mark he struck across his own record (which is credible for New Jersey but pretty crappy anywhere else) with his reactionary endorsement of Romney, taking up the colors of the regiment tasked to defend the indefensible. We speak of Romneycare, the zygote that twinned off metastatically to give us Obamacare. Christie’s task, which he took to like a meatball sub, was not to rebut reasoned objections to Romney as the father of Obamacare. Oh no! That would require air time and, um, some facts that we just don’t have right now, so instead the dubious Christie expends all his reserve flatulence in bilious, personalized denunciations of any who observe the simple fact that yes, procedurally they are one and the same! How can anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear deny this? But the blind and deaf are always a powerful voting bloc. If the talk shows are anything to go by the grammies and grampops are split between Mitt and Newt, each befuddled at the other but apparently as ignorant of their foe as they are indoctrinated for their own. What being can believe Romney’s adamant contention that he will immediately repeal Obamacare once in office? As the grannies say, “Of course he will, he says it every time he speaks. It is the first thing he says whenever he speaks.” Did everyone forget that it is the Legislature that would do such a thing? So Willard promises what he will have no power to do yet no one calls him on it. One might think the Obama Administration with their box-seats for this spectacle, might make the observation but the limits of the Presidency or indeed the limits on government of any sort are not an issue they would like on anyone’s mind. So Willard walks on unmolested, not from the regrettable, forgettable wreckage of a lie/error caught out but rather amplifying and continuing his lie! Why? Because now it has been ratified, if not by the TEA Party proper at least by a majority Republican vote. It is now consensus that Romney is the first foe of Obamacare. From where did this vapid madness leak in? It all depends on what the definition of “repeal” is, don’t you see? As serviceable squish Senator from Minnesota, Norm Coleman (R) put it so well, there will be some tinkering about the edges but no, a Romney Administration will not repeal Obamacare. The proposition is absurd. And so it is. Any such action would be only pro-forma, if even that is actually attempted. There is little evidence that there is the desire, much less the will. Obamacare will become Romneycare although perhaps without the reproductive rules lately so offensive to Catholics (and one would presume, Mormons). The individual mandate? That is going nowhere except to be spray-painted.

Willardworld will have socialized medicine. Dandy! I hope the Romney supporters on Medicare/Medicaid/SSI enjoy that. Given their stated principles of responsibility and limited government they should at least not be surprised at the collapse. What will Willardworld NOT have that we might miss? One prominent excision is of Florida Republican Allen West. You have seen this man who first came to national prominence in uniform having interrogated an Iraqi prisoner by shooting a 9mm past his ear. He has practiced the same vigor in office (and let us stipulate that his actions were NOT illegal and were not found to be illegal) doing (political) drive-bys on the Congressional Black Caucus and Democrats, yes, but nearly as often (and with great accuracy) against the grandees, squishes and vested turncoats of the Republican Party. Could it be any surprise that such a man must go? Republicans rule in Florida generally and we have just had a census, as you recall. That means Redistricting. All House districts are re-drawn by the State Legislatures. Now, it is true that districts move with voters from State to State. New York loses seats and Arizona gains. So if the Florida Republicans are phasing out West’s district, and they are, it must be because they have lost seats or lost safe Republican seats due to a gigantic influx of Democrats, right? Oh, wrongo. Florida is gaining seats yet West is singled out for an attack by gerrymander. So be it, West has proven he is not easily dismayed or swayed. Already he is making arrangements to run in another district with a retiring Republican incumbent. If anything it seems we have a more fiery West as a result, thankfully, but how can you blame this on Mitt Romney? Heck, he isn’t even from Florida! No, and neither is he from Virginia. Did the Virginia Republicans change their ballot rules spontaneously, excluding all candidates but Romney and Paul, in an instance of immaculate policy conception? No. No. Whether they took their orders from a Romney lieutenant or were acting to gain the great man’s eye and favor the result is the same. It is Mitt’s party and you can cry if you want to but if you vote for him anyway things won’t alter in the slightest. Romney’s Republicans are not simply non-conservatives. They are actively and maliciously ANTI-conservative. If you do not know this, Righties, you don’t know much.

Is there an upside? Always, there is. The great virtue of Willardworld succeeding Obamaworld is continuity. Willard follows Obama like night follows day. Do you scoff? Perhaps you got youtubed into one of the President’s finest moments and a mere moment it proved to be. Obama did a very credible if brief bit of crooning in homage to the Rev Al Green and it was an unscripted, genuine touch of humanity. That it was conceived for partisan persuasion is not too relevant. It was ether not contrived or well contrived. What was Romney’s response? Why in bloody hell should he HAVE a response? Yet he did, choosing perhaps the only song he knows (and that not well), Willard forced a crowd of supporters to endure his version of the national anthem. That was a conscious absurdity. Romney considers Obama his foil, not his adversary. Like Obama Mitt favors gun control but does not speak of it or openly pursue it. Today. Like Obama, Mitt finds little in the Constitution but a barrier to his own just will. Like Obama, Mitt does not engage either foes or facts. Rather he dismisses them or has surrogates write them off the stage. Like Obama, Mitt has a media guard that serves to cement him and his policies in place. Certainly he enjoys less of that than Obama but it is the POLICIES not the personalities that we should concern ourselves with. Mitt is unquestioned on global warming because global warming is unquestionable. Mitt is babied by the media on his lengthy, late pro-choice record not for his sake but to safeguard abortion. Mitt is excused his self-dealing from the government trough, meager as it was relatively, not to save his skin but to prevent the general feeding from being disturbed.  It is unclear if the foregoing really attaches to Mitt the Man as opposed to Romney Inc. It seems likely that Romney again apes Obama in his removal and indeed amazement at the realm of policy. Displaying no ideology or principle, Romney forces us to presume that it is mere ambition driving his march forward. Mitt aspires to be a belated but additional First in our Plague of Firsts exemplified by the First Black President (Bill Clinton). Willard Mitt Romney intends to be our First Mormon President, a laughable milestone that again is only a fitting of his feet into the footprints of Obama.

THAT is the world we are living in.

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