Slouching Toward November

So Mitt Romney has won, and won big. He’s got momentum, and it’s bad news for Newt, as well as for other contenders like Santorum and Ron Paul. The way you puncture the inevitability of an “inevitable” nominee is to beat him, and nobody came close to beating Romney in Florida. On the other hand, as Bryan Preston points out at the link above, Romney hasn’t won over Republican voters yet.

Then again, neither has anyone else, and nobody else came close to Romney’s performance tonight. Ultimately, the way you seal the deal is by getting the votes, and the delegates. So far, Romney seems to be pulling ahead.

In exit interviews, many GOP primary voters worried that campaign negativity would hurt the chances of beating Obama in November. And while politics ain’t beanbag, winning politics isn’t about fratricide, either. What GOP primary voters are looking for, above all, is a candidate who can make Barack Obama a one-term President. Candidates will be well advised to remember that, and not let their egos lead them into pointless personal attacks.