New Hampshire

New Hampshire voted last night, and the results were exactly what everyone had been predicting. The main headlines:

• Romney is probably inevitable
• Although there’s Trouble with a capital T which rhymes with P and that stands for Paul (Music Man reference anyone?)
• Huntsman is done

Sullivan, as usual, live-blogged. I fail to see the need for live-blogging this sort of thing, but hey they don’t pay me.

“Paul has the money and the volunteers and the energy to take this all the way. Because he’s as interested in spreading his message as he is in winning. I think he reveals rather starkly the amoral sliminess of the front-runner. And it could get fun.”

“Romney simply recites the economic stats since January 2009. And says that Obama is not an American. That’s his core pitch. And it’s very personal toward Obama. Romney says he is waging war on the private sector. And so the election is about saving America’s “soul”. He uses the Europe line – saying Obama takes his inspiration from European capitals. Really? This is a speech from the 1980s. Romney even says that it was Obama who lost the AAA credit rating. Not how I remember it. Then the appeasement card and a pledge to return to full Cold War global military hegemony. Then the unconditional support for Israel and the repeated big lie that Obama has apologized for America, when he has only ever apologized for the war crimes that took place under his predecessor, whom no Republican candidate has yet mentioned in this campaign.

We also have this constant denigration of “what Europe has become”. Does Romney know that unemployment in Germany is 5.5 percent? Or is all this just abstract bullshit?”

It is, of course, all just abstract bullshit.

Kevin Drum couldn’t care less:

I guess I’m expected to say something about tonight’s primary. So here it is. Mitt Romney has always been the inevitable nominee. After Iowa, he continued to be the inevitable nominee. After tonight, he is, still, the inevitable nominee. In other words, nothing happened.

I disagree. Last night was huge for Paul, and liberals like Drum would be wise not to underestimate him. That’s not to say I agree with or support him, but I think writing him off is a foolish strategy.

Bernstein thinks its going to be Romney:

Does Romney have it wrapped up now? He’s had a good week, no question. Despite Romney taking a serious hit over the last few days, it’s very hard to see how anyone other than him could win the nomination…

All in all, it’s not quite over yet, but it’s getting very, very close to being over.

And Kevin Drum, with yesterday’s quote of the day:

If Newt Gingrich doesn’t get to be quarterback, he’ll take his ball and go home. And then he’ll return with a backhoe, tear up the field, and turn it into a toxic waste dump.

Advertisement