Republican Nomination: The Fat Lady Sings at The Venetian but the Losers Aren't Listening

As we all know, it ain’t over until the fat lady sings.

But I’ve seen a few fat ladies singing myself in the amusingly ersatz courtyard of Sheldon Adelson’s The Venetian hotel in Vegas. Sometimes it was Traviata, sometimes Aida, sometimes even Lucia di Lammermoor.

And, although I wasn’t in attendance this time, I think the fat lady was singing there again tonight, an aria bringing a quick conclusion to that opera called the Republican nominating competition.

And I don’t know about you, but I’m glad it’s over. This opera — not composed by Verdi, Puccini, or anyone close — was getting pretty screechy.

The candidates had nothing left to say. After all, three of them (not Paul, of course) pretty much agree with each other about everything of substance. The debates were no more than puerile exercises in name-calling, orchestrated and encouraged by the mainstream media. The rest of the candidates’ salvos, those outside the debates, again pretty much amounted to the same thing, trying to convince the voters the other guy was lying when he said exactly what the rest of them were saying. How edifying… Okay, I’m kidding. How mind-numbing. How self and mutually destructive.

So when the fat lady began singing the final aria, “Romney has won in Nevada! Romney has won in Nevada! From The Venetian to the Wynn, Romney has won!” I had no choice but to join the chorus — not because I think Romney is anything special (I don’t think politicians in general are anything special, not until they prove themselves against history in big ways like Reagan and Churchill) but because this opera has gone on too long. This is Wagner times ten.

It not only is over, it should be over. And if Republicans have any interest in winning against Barack Obama, they better make it over.

Because beating Obama is getting harder by the minute. The train is leaving the station, as the say, and that train is called lower unemployment numbers. In case you live on former planet Pluto, the unemployment rate just went down to 8.3%. Maybe it’s bogus. Indeed, I suspect it’s bogus.(Romney tonight spoke of 15% real unemployment — including those who have stopped looking — in his victory speech.) But if the American public can be convinced the economy is improving — and you can bet the media and the administration will do their best to make it so — Obama II is here. Book it.

To the myriad conservative pundits screaming Romney’s a fake, Gingrich is sleazy, etc., etc., I say “Shut up, already!” This isn’t sports. It’s history.

To the candidates themselves who treat each other like they were refugees from a leper colony, when their actual views are close to identical, I say take your extreme narcissistic personality disorders and go see a reputable psychiatrist. The country is more important than you are.

Specially to be noted here is Rick Santorum who just jumped the shark by stating publicly that neither Romney nor Gingrich can win the general election. Talk about projection. This is the man who came in dead last in Nevada and Florida and lost his last election in his home state by eighteen points. (Yes, he eked out a threadbare caucus victory in Iowa, but has gone nowhere since. For those who say, well, he didn’t campaign in Nevada, I say, basically hooey.)

So listen to the fat lady, everybody. She’s singing even if you can’t hear her. And it’s not Margaret Dumont this time. It’s the real thing. Romney has won this race. From here on in, the only thing that can happen is for the others to damage his electability. Is that what you really want? The only ones who profit from the continuation of this one-legged horse race are Barack Obama and, needless to say, the media.

Oh, and Ron Paul, of course. He will continue to tell us that America should pull in its horns while Assad guns down his citizens in the streets of Syria and Ahmadinejad builds nukes.

It is clear, however, that Newt and Rick are not listening to the fat lady. Gingrich was particularly angry and nasty in his post-Nevada primary press conference. This campaign will continue, at least for now. And the heat will continue with little light.