So far I've looked in vain for any information as to who decided Mitt Romney was the right man to give the "Prebuttal" to last night's SOTU by Obama. I can only assume this was done at the behest of the RNC. Well, somebody had to give the go ahead, right? I suppose Romney could have purchased the air time, but wouldn't that in itself be news? Maybe I'm missing something here.
I doubt that though. The GOP almost had Obama surrounded last night. All that was missing was another candidate, or potential candidate, making faces and obscene gestures during the middle of the presidential address to both houses of Congress.
The Republicans decided, evidently, the Prebuttal should be by their preferred candidate. That of course is Romney. Never mind that, as of now, Gingrich is ahead in delegate counts and the polls in Florida are close enough between Gingrich and Romney as to fall squarely within the margin of error. The Republican Establishment has decided they want Mitt this year.
They are actually pissed, and concerned, that its not all over yet. But Gingrich is still going strong, and Santorum and Paul are also still in the mix. It's not over by a long shot. So what does the GOP do? They try to reassert Romney's aura of inevitability by giving him this prime speaking slot.
But just to be on the safe side, they appoint Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels to deliver the traditional rebuttal following Obama's address, the day before this putting out a trial balloon trying to gauge potential support for Daniels among the GOP electorate.
Isn't it strange that the party of Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan always wants to promote its moderates, even its liberals. They want no truck with a Sarah Palin, who I believe they pressured out of this year's race. But they will go back and forth multiple times to encourage somebody like Daniels, or Jeb Bush, or Chris Christie. And they're so dense one resounding no isn't enough for them. They have to hear it over and over again. It wasn't but two or three weeks ago they were floating the Jeb Bush trial balloon for the third or fourth time, and now its back to Daniels, again. I guess in two or three weeks it will be time to float the Chris Christie balloon, yet again.
It's fucking sickening. If the GOP wants to go back to the days when nominees were decided by party bosses and precinct captains, they should just come out and say so and quit wasting our fucking time.