He 'da man....

....that would be Willard Mitt Romney, according to the voters in last night's Iowa caucus.  He nosed out Rick Santorum, who is vying with Michele Bachman to come across as the rightest of the right wingers.  She crashed and burned, leaving her free to go home and have a Tea Party.  Good 'ol Ron Paul still makes good sense now and then, in between lapses into mild insanity, and did well in Iowa, too.  And thankfully Iowans saw Newt "I'm different now, trust me" Gingrich as what he is, a hypocrite of the highest order, and Rick "look at my cool hair" Perry as simply a doofus.


Willard...er...Mitt should do well in New Hampshire, while Rick will feel right at home in South Carolina.  Ron has fringe appeal everywhere.  Of those, who is actually electable?  I'm guessing Willard Mitt. (Doh....I hate it when I do that!)  His past is liberal enough to be able to appeal to middle-of-the-roaders, and of course he has Wall Street money in his corner.  His buddies there are already salivating over their soon-to-be-swelled-even-more bonuses. Dom Perigone anyone?


Here's what concerns me:  If Republicans keep their majority in the House of Representatives and can gain control of the Senate (heaven forbid gaining a veto-proof 60 votes), AND see their nominee (Mitt?) win the White House, it will be seen as a mandate for the kind of hands-off / business-as-usual governing that gave us the economic debacle of '08.  The rich will get richer, while you and I....well, you know how that turned out.  Even with partisan politics being as rancorous as they are today, I think we need to split power between the parties.  The gridlock would be hell, but IMHO giving EITHER party a blank check to run the country as they saw fit would be even more disastrous.  What's so wrong with compromise?


What say you?


S