Iowa: What Counts -- The Romney Takeaway

Mitt wins IOWA 2012 by 8 votes, 6 votes less than he received in 2008.

The chattering classes have another 28 days until South Carolina to fan the dying embers of this Republican Primary season into something more than a fizz-out. Romney will win New Hampshire and come very close if not outright win in South Carolina and it will be all over but the shouting. Here's a sampling of such pointless punditry:

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0112/71061.html

http://www.thetakeaway.org/2012/jan/04/

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-big-takeaway-from-iowa-75-percent-of-republicans-dont-want-mitt-romney-2012-1

The voters who will decide this year's Presidential election are still asleep.

What matters is not that Mitt Romney is clearly an underwhelming choice for President as viewed by Iowa caucus-goers and the right-wing, dogmatic, misinformed base of his own party.

What matters is that Mitt Romney will be an attractive choice for the undogmatic, uninformed will-o-the-wisp independents who decide American elections.

Iowa and the lunacy of the GOP field up until now is just so much sausage-making.

GRASPING AT STRAW POLLS

The perhaps more telling vulnerability that Mitt has shown appeared again last night in his 'victory' speech. It was in his forced, emotionally disconnected, pressurized ramble. Like his offer to bet Perry "10,000 dollars" it had the impulsive, thin-skinned hauteur he shows when he's threatened and disappointed.

Last night in Iowa that was likely due to the fact his 'handlers' had told him he would win and allowed him to go out and publicly declare himself the likely winner -- which he did -- only to find himself in a tie with a political non-entity, the latest NOT-ROMNEY.

Likely, most of the sturm-und-drang for Mitt the Twit is over for now. At the hands of our overly-civilized President he's likely to have a cushy ride until the end of October. But, if the economy ticks up and Romney's numbers go a bit south, the breathless, desperate Mitt and his wacky faith in his own anointment could provide the result most desired and that's best for the country.

Romney will undoubtedly be forced to run away from the Tea Party death squads in Congress who have destroyed every positive, conciliatory initiative the Democrats have offered. With no coat-tails of his own then, even a fairly narrow defeat of Romney could portend a sizable rollback of the Congressional crazies and leave a second Obama term with a thin, but governable working majority.