It is indeed a sad state of GOP affairs when Politico can straightforwardly deliver as straight news, not opinion, that
At the very moment when one or two candidates are usually beginning to surge ... this pack seems collectively slouching to the finish line.
There's simply no honest way to punch it up: last night's monotonous, mind-numbing, count it 13th debate. We had seen this movie a dozen times before; a poorly plotted, badly scripted film noir featuring, as E.J. Dionne wrote of Mitt Romney's performance, "the sort of over-the-top attacks on President Obama ... that the Republican base loves."
Did it have its moments? A few, such as Ron Paul's neo-isolationist unraveling over Michele Bachmann's unmitigated jingoism, and Romney's umpteenth attempt at defending a philosophical consistency that isn't, and Newt Gingrich's enormously unbelievable explanations of his non-lobbying lobbying. So yes, there were moments -- but they were, were they not, replays. The evening's dramatic essence was merely theatrical -- mostly a rehearsed slosh of pandering to hardcore prejudices and indulging the base's malice.
Last night is what happens when the targeted political audience hasn't demanded excellence since ... Richard Nixon.
So is there, regarding this mess of a once-grand party, any real cliffhanger left? I believe there is, or at least I suspect there is, and it is this: Can even Citizens United now spare the GOP its most humiliating defeat since Alf Landon?