It's Obama vs. Romney. Get over it.

I'VE ARGUED for over a year that when the smoke clears, Mitt Romney will be the GOP nominee for president. Any other choice would likely hand President Obama a landslide win in 2012. (In theory, Jon Huntsman could give Obama a run for his money. But he's a leper in his own party and will never get the chance.) Ross Douthat agrees: "[B]arring an unprecedented suspension of the laws of American politics, Mitt Romney has this thing wrapped up. ... People like to cite counterexamples: The Republicans nominated Barry Goldwater, after all, and the Democrats nominated George McGovern. But Goldwater and McGovern, for all their weaknesses, were far more credible nominees than a Perry, a Herman Cain, a Michele Bachmann, a Newt Gingrich. They were too extreme to win the general election, but they were not political novices or washed-up self-promoters, and they had a mix of eloquence and experience that’s largely absent from the current Republican field. (Watch clips of Goldwater being interviewed by William F. Buckley Jr. on “Firing Line,” and then try to imagine how Perry would fare in the same format.)" It's too bad we can't fast-forward pass the pretense that this contest isn't about Obama vs. Romney.