A reasonably unscathed Romney could be more than a match for a rather unpopular incumbent.

and fuck the Giants, they are going down this week. lol

as for the rest of your post, yeah not much to argue with. Especially about Huntsman, Perry and Santorum. Of course Perry has been toast for a while now, he just doesn't have the sense to fall down.

oh, wait-------I stole that from intrade----LOL !

Like it or not that's how they finished. Will any of the remaining drop out, like Perry or Santorum.

I think Newt Gingrich will be under a lot of pressure to do something in NC, next to his home state of Georgia and the South.

If he can't finish well he should quit.

enough money to make a run at Romney.  But it will have to be a run of major proportions. Romney has the momentum, he has a big lead in the SC polls at this time, he'll get a bounce from NH, and he is overwhelmingly considered the most electable of the Republican candidates.

For Gingrich to stay in the race, he must run a strong second in SC and somehow win Florida.

Romney: Winner (obviously).  First non incumbent GOP candidate to win both Iowa and NH.
Paul:   Winner.  Ran ahead of all the others but Romney in a state Romney was sure to win.
Huntsman:  Loser.  Gambled it all on NH for a weak 3rd place finish.  He's toast.
Gingrich:  Loser.  Another weak showing.  Agree he needs to step if up big time in SC or he's gone.
Santorum: Biggest loser.  All the "momentum" he gained in Iowa is gone.
Perry: Loser.  Need I say more?

Nostradumus Priapus?????
Well, I've been long predicting that Romney would be the nominee but would lose to Obama if the economy stayed strong.  We need an odds-maker.

But they used to call Clinton "Teflon" and I think Obama has much of the same traits when it comes to criticism.  Of course, Clinton's criticism was more about his personal behavior than his job performance while Obama has been and is a solid citizen and good family man.

Still, I think it would take something of a drastic nature to derail Obama in November.

and be weakened with no momentum coming out of the convention. All this leading up to an easy reelection for Obama.

Priapus is correct, the betting line hasn't moved much off of "flat money" for months, nor should it IMO.

and just WTF do you mean by the economy "staying strong"? Are you suggesting we are now in a strong economy?

that he could never make it back to center to have a chance in the GE.

Well that and hoping the economy would at least appear to be improving. Obama is going to need more than smoke and mirrors to pretend the economy is improving come November

The further left you go, the less evil and right wing he looks to the independents and moderates.

They are likely to adopt him as one of their own and not a some scary Republican likely to sell out the the religious right.

The right wing OTOH is sort of fucked, it's not like they are going to vote for Obama, so like it or not Romney at his worst is still better than Obama at his best, so they will still vote for him. I will concede they won't do it enthuisasticly and not in as great a number as if they were voting for "one of their own", but vote they will.

Romney has to know his strength is as a "moderate" he will never be able to sell himself as a "true conservative" nor should he.

Independents can stomach a moderate Romney, but trying to kowtow to the right will not fool any conservatives and will only alienate the middle, which is where this election will be won or lost, unlike the last two elections where the winner got their "base" to turn out in record numbers.

I don't know which was more distasteful, watching Bush winning reelection through manipulating the Gay Marriage issue, or Obama getting stupid kids and disenfranchised minorites to vote for him with the false expectation that "Daddy Government" was going to take care of all his needs.

No doubt Romney has been slick, even brilliant, in not getting tarred by Newt and others, though it could still happen.  As for the economy "staying strong," I'll concede I should have said, "continues to strengthen."

and if it continues to do so, the economic and political climate could be quite positive.  As I've said, the main thing that can derail that is Europe, so we'll have to see.  Also, I do think that, while Romney has been hit somewhat so far about his flip flops, that's where his real vulnerability is and Obama will hit him there.  After all, Karl Rove wrote the textbook on how to do it vs. Kerry.

McCain was not the choice of the conservatives. That is why he went "maverick" and chose Palin as his running mate.

The only way Romney can beat Obama is if the centrist independents go his way and not the way of the President.  And, he needs a good turnout from the right wing who will have to accept that a somewhat liberal Republican is better than a left-wing Democrat.

"Change". He was all about making changes in Wash.DC on the way we did goverment business. People we so down on the goc. they voted for him.

No one really asked for specifics of the change.

It is pretty ingrained in society a Democratic POTUS is a vote for free bennies.