Almost inconceivable is that a political publication that covers politics and goes by the rather political name of Politico could be so politically obtuse:
None of the GOP frontrunner’s primary opponents attacked him by name [in S.C. last night], choosing instead to level harsh attacks on President Barack Obama....
But while hammering Obama is a guaranteed crowd-pleaser, it’s less clear how it helps those candidates lagging behind Romney make up ground.
For Pete's sake, as the GOP frontrunner would blaspheme, "those candidates lagging behind Romney" are only conceding their lower pack status and acknowledging Romney's dominance. At this point, they're just delicately jockeying for the running-mate spot.
The contest is down to that. Not one of them believes he, or in a singular case she, can possibly unite a sufficient percentage of the scattered and scatterbrained tea-partying herd to overcome Romney's unshakeable redoubt.
Barring, on Romney's part, a monstrous series of self-inflicted "Oops" of Perryesque proportions, it's over.
And since Romney doesn't commit such oops, it's ...
I know it and you know it and Romney knows it and Romney's opponents know it. By what bizarre, cognitive lapse could Politico miss it? I doubt the publication is in reality that obtuse; it's merely trying to keep some suspense in this joke of a contest alive.