Going into Wednesday night’s debate, Mitt Romney has a decent chance to alter the underlying dynamics of the campaign and achieve a somewhat more favorable position to close the gap with President Barack Obama in the remaining weeks of the race. And not just because Politico reports that Politico reports this is true, in a Politico exclusive. As Steve Kornacki writes, “They won’t say it loudly, but Romney’s team is hoping to replicate what John Kerry did at the end of September 2004, when he won rave reviews for his debate performance and almost overnight closed most of what had been a six-to-eight point gap against George W. Bush.”
But apparently, this is all for naught, because according to Mark Halperin, Mitt Romney has already lost an utterly critical political constituency, and is probably doomed to wander the earth like a pauper, or whatever:
Mitt Romney decisively loses the Tom Friedman Primary. Boston will likely say “who cares?” and “big surprise (not),” rather than asking why it happened and what the political (and potential governing) implications are.
