Mitt Romney’s romp to the Republican nomination has not been without its troubles but Romney’s difficulties are as nothing compared to those facing a press corps determined to string the primary season out for as long as possible. A Romney victory in South Carolina is bad news for the media. It will ruin the fun. So, with that appalling prospect looming, it’s necessary to get creative. Vanity Fair’s Todd Purdum wins today’s gong for his intriguing theory that Romney is in trouble because he keeps winning.
Pity Mitt Romney. It’s hard to imagine anyone else who could do what he’s just done: become the first non-incumbent Republican to win the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary since 1976, when Iowa began to matter, and still manage to seem somehow in trouble. Why should such good news still sound bad? Because while Romney far outperformed his nearest rival here in his almost home state (and a state where he, in fact, owns a home), that’s just what he was supposed to do, so the market had already discounted the victory before the last polls closed.
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