Last night’s disastrous outing by Texas Governor Rick Perry cements a brilliant couple of weeks for Republican frontrunner Mitt Romney and delivers more tough news to President Barack Obama.<\/p>\n
Perry and the third top-tier GOP challenger, Herman Cain, continue to struggle and that means Romney — who is running a masterful, keep-it-simple, no-mistakes campaign — is now the prohibitive favorite.<\/p>\n
He’s not very popular among Republican rank-and-file voters, but Romney is now all but sure to be the last man standing.<\/p>\n
To recap, Perry’s mental blackout during the debate solidified a popular notion that he’s not that bright and not that ready to be Commander in Chief.<\/p>\n
After introducing the idea that he wanted to axe three Federal agencies, Perry could only name two.\u00a0 As he himself put it, “Oops.”<\/p>\n
(It was particularly bizarre that the governor of oil-rich Texas blanked out on the Department of Energy…which Perry later said was the third agency he’d like to eliminate.)<\/p>\n
Cain, meanwhile, has blamed everyone — the media, Rick Perry, and now Democrats — for the water torture trickle of women coming forward to accuse him of sexual harassment.<\/p>\n
As if…<\/p>\n
The truth is the Democrats have no interest in seeing Cain wounded.<\/p>\n
On the contrary, as long as Romney faces serious opposition, and is forced to slog through a long bloody primary fight, Team Obama’s chances at a second term continue to rise.<\/p>\n
If the Dems planned to trot out sexual harassment accusers, they would have waited until after the primary, right?<\/p>\n
The muddle leaves Romney in a great position, where Job One is convincing Republicans that he’s not only a sure thing, but also a sure thing they can get excited about.<\/p>\n
Polls show that conservative voters are already far more zealous about the 2012 election than liberals.\u00a0 Romney needs to lock in that enthusiasm, which he’s so far failed to do.<\/p>\n
Mr. Obama, meanwhile, has already been preparing to face Romney in the general election.\u00a0 Now it looks like he may have to face a Republican challenger largely unbloodied by the primary season, with a large campaign chest, and fresh for the fight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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