Mitt Romney: What could have been?

RealClearPolitics has a great article with the basic premise:

It's one thing to lose as you are. What you lose is an election, but there's always another election and in the case of presidential primary politics, a new electorate that awaits you in the next state. It's another thing to lose as you aren't. Mitt Romney was never the 700 Club right-winger his campaign managers conceived. He was and is a man of business and a very capable one at that.

Romney has been running as a pro-life, anti-gay, pro-torture, anti-Constitution, pro-ethanol, anti-immigrant; well, you get the point. But he governed as a socially moderate, economically conservative (but not nutty--he expanded health care for the poor and middle class in Massachusetts; teaming with Ted Kennedy no less) Republican in a blue state.

But alas, he went for the lowest common denominator and is now losing even in his home-state neighbor New Hampshire. We'll see what happens tomorrow with the primary. But as a partisan Democrat, I am relieved that he took the Neanderthal route in place of the moderate route. Then we could have had a real competitor in the general election...

Go Huckabee!