PATH TO THE NOMINATION – AT 10:43 A.M. ET:  Think of it this way:  We're nine months away from an election year.  Judging by the downhill slide of Obama, the movie, it will be one of the most important election years in our recent history.  What he have now is Carter lite.  Or Carter diluted.  Or non-fat, or something. 

But the Republicans struggle to come up with a candidate who can beat the Obama political machine, with its precinct captains from mainstream journalism.  It will not be easy.  The Republican bench, as currently constituted, does not exactly drip with charisma.

Take Mitt Romney...please.  (Okay, that's an old Henny Youngman line.  I apologize for my sins.)  He's a fine man, I'm sure.  But he still reminds me too much of the guy in the Brooks Brothers light jacket ads.   Here, from The Politico, is his apparent strategy to get the GOP nomination:

Much will depend on the still-unsettled primary calendar and the eventual field of candidates. But the former Massachusetts governor’s aim, according to multiple aides and advisers, is to exceed expectations his team is working feverishly to lower in Iowa, to come back strong with a win in New Hampshire, to survive South Carolina in part by picking up an off-setting victory in Nevada and then to settle in for what many described as “a slog” that they’ll emerge from thanks to superior money and organization.

Boy, can you sense the excitement?  What a vision! 

At this stage, I just don't think Romney has the electricity to beat Obama.  I could be wrong, and I'd want to be wrong if he gets the nomination.  But if Republicans were politically smart – there's a first time for everything – they'd start looking toward their young bench.  We can't afford four more years of Obama.

March 25, 2011