In his Washington Post column, Eugene Robinson speculates on the Republican Party's ultimate decision to nominate Mitt Romney for president. He may be the obvious choice, Robinson says, but given the latest poll results, it's difficult to see how Romney wins the nomination.
… Polls have told a consistent story: Between 20 percent and 30 percent of Republican voters support Romney, and the rest support somebody else. Actually, not somebody, anybody.
It was bad enough when Romney's main challenger was Michele Bachmann, whose views are so extreme that she favored allowing the nation to go into default — thus triggering the possible collapse of the global financial system — rather than to raise the debt ceiling. It was bad enough when Rick Perry entered the race and vaulted into the lead, sight unseen. It was bad enough when Republicans, having actually made Perry’s acquaintance, practically offered New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie the nomination, along with a dog and pony, if he'd just say yes.
But the whole Herman Cain infatuation is much worse, from Romney's point of view. Here's a man with no experience in public office, no knowledge of international affairs and, from the evidence of his "9-9-9" tax plan, bizarre ideas about how arithmetic works. Yet before allegations of sexual harassment threatened to derail the Cain Train, he was leading in many polls.
Read Eugene Robinson's entire column at the Washington Post.