Mr. Electability

I didn't see the most recent couple of debates, but I did manage to catch the speech that Mitt Romney gave after his decisive win in New Hampshire.  I still do have reservations about Romney, but I thought it was a pretty good speech filled with some pretty sharp attacks on Obama's awful record.  If everything I ever knew about Romney came only from that speech, then I'd be very inclined to support him right now.

The trouble is, I know a lot more about Romney than he's telling me in this speech.

I was inclined to support Rick Perry, mainly because his record on job creation in Texas seems to me to be the perfect thing to hit Obama over the head with... but Perry doesn't seem to have the communication skills required to translate his good record as governor into a successful presidential campaign.  And now that Perry is apparently joining Newt Gingrich in attacking Romney from the left, I think Perry has blown whatever chance he had left of making any sort of comeback in the polls.

So where does that leave me?  Well, I'm not entirely sold on the idea that Mitt Romney is the most electable GOP candidate we have... but there is something to be said for having people skills.  After all, what's the use of having a good record if you aren't able to use it to persuade anyone of anything?  It would be nice if we had a candidate who offered the best of both worlds, but I don't see anyone out there who has a good record and also has the good people skills needed to sell it... so, at this point, I'm thinking maybe I could live with having Romney as our nominee.

I was already willing to settle for Romney once before back in 2008, but thanks to Huckabee we wound up getting stuck with McCain... so instead of a candidate with an iffy record and good salesmanship, we wound up getting one with an iffy record and no discernable desire to even win the election.  Let's not do that one ever again, please.

Update:  Thanks to the Watcher's Council for the honorable mention.

Update:  Rick Perry has dropped out and endorsed Newt Gingrich... hmmmm.