Politics

Romney Leads by Mile; Paul, Santo Fight for Second; Gingrich Still Running

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With a little under half precincts reporting in the Washington State caucus, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is in first place with a double-digit lead.

Ron Paul and Rick Santorum are in a tight race for second place. Newt Gingrich's flatlining campaign will most likely get even flatter as we head into Überdienstag.

I hate to sound like a broken record, but as Romney slowly gets control of the Republican nomination, it just gets clearer how much of the electable electability of his electableness is vapor. He's getting the nod in 2012 with numbers that are not appreciably better than what he got in the course of having his ass handed to him by John McCain in 2008. McCain got his clock cleaned by Barack Obama, who remains a phenomenally skilled campaigner even as he has turned out to be a rotten president. And the Obama team has not even begun to neutralize Romney on the one subject that makes Obama most vulnerable — the disastrous and hated health care reform that Romney himself invented. 

The chart above is what snatching defeat from the jaws of victory looks like.