Moving on from the Republican primaries

So, it looks like we can finally say that Mitt Romney will be the Republican nominee to take on Barack Obama in November. Last night, he swept the three primaries in Wisconsin, Maryland and the District of Columbia, adding 85 delegates to his count. Romney now has now amassed around 650 of the 1,144 delegates he needs to clinch the nomination. That may make it seem like he’s got a lot more work to do, but in fact it means he needs to claim just 42 per cent of the remaining delegates to reach the winning line. Considering he’s won 58 per cent of the ones up for grabs so far, that doesn’t seem too tough a goal. His campaign’s also been bolstered in the last few days by endorsements from big name Republicans like Jeb Bush, Paul Ryan and Marco Rubio.

With the primary race now virtually settled, the focus is shifting from the fight between Romney and his fellow Republicans to that between him and the President. That fight’s got seven months left to run, but it’s heating up nicely already. In his victory speech last night (above), Romney lambasted Obama’s ego:

‘President Obama thinks he is doing a good job. I’m not kidding. He actually thinks he is doing a great job. He thinks he’s doing an historically great job, like Abraham Lincoln and LBJ and FDR, and no, he did not say this on Saturday Night Live, all righty? It’s enough to make you think that years of flying around on Air Force One, surrounded by an adoring staff of true believers, telling you that you’re great and you are doing a great job, it’s enough to make you think that you might become a little out of touch with that, and that’s what’s happened.’

‘He said that he’s “very supportive” of this new budget, and he even called it “marvellous” — which is a word you don’t often hear when it comes to describing a budget. It’s a word you don’t often hear generally.’