Mitt Romney: the Bob Dole of 2012?



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Reading Steve Kornacki's piece "The GOP and electoral suicide" at Salon.com I got to thinking, the race for the 2012 Republican nomination is the strangest, most fluid nominating contest I've ever followed (going back to the early '90's). Analytical skill and instinct be damned, there is just no predicting who will win it. Or is there?
Rachel Maddow (one of the most brilliant minds in politics & media today), predicts with certainty Mitt Romney will take it. She's the one with the doctorate and a staff of researchers, so maybe she's right; but I'm not convinced. She may be failing to grasp the depth and intensity of GOPers distrust and dislike of Romney.
Once the good 'ol boy party poo bahs decide to get behind one candidate (which I believe will be Rick Perry), the pretenders (Newt Gingrich, Herman Cain, Rick Santorum, Michele Bachmann) will fade and the race will end somewhere between South Carolina and Florida. It's worth noting that in 2008 Romney couldn't buy the race. He tried mightily but got shellacked in Iowa by cash-strapped insurgent Gov. Mike Huckabee. Talk about embarrassing. Then he got beat by a weak John McCain in New Hampshire and SC (where he didn't have a prayer).
In Romney I see Groundhog Day. Why would voters be any more inclined to support him now than they did in 2008? His elitism and Olympic-level flip-floppery is even more evident now than it was then. If there's one thing voters from across the political spectrum agree on, it's having a general disgust for politicians with no moral core. Romney's campaign slogan might as well be I'll Tell You Whatever You Want to Hear!
If the GOP establishment does get behind Romney, he will most likely go down in history as the Bob Dole of 2012 (a mere sacrificial lamb). The meaning? They'll be done with him once and for all; and are already focusing on real presidential aspirants for 2016.
But like I said before, who knows. This race and political climate is unlike any other in modern times. If Maddow winds up being right and Romney becomes the GOP nominee, I will bow down before her brilliance and courage in making this early call. If my instinct is right and Perry wins his party's backing, she should hire me.