Weigel

My new piece is a rant about a campaign phenomenon that has gone from weird to completely confounding. So: The fourth estate believes that Mitt Romney has done what he needs to win the GOP nomination. The fourth estate knows that a substantial number of Republican voters don't love Romney -- they're warming to him, and he's rising in early state polls, but he's not crushing anyone. And so a new parlor game has been born: "Ooh, who'll be the next candidate to surge and become the anti-Romney?"

There's an interesting and revealing campaign going on to become the anti-Romney -- totally true. But at the same time, Romney's stronger in the early staes than he ever has been. And he's getting totally lost in the fray. It's quite strange.