ROBO-ROMNEY….I screwed up and forgot that tonight’s Republican debate started at 5 instead of 6, which means I hardly saw any of it. So, no substantive commentary except for my awe at Tom Tancredo seriously suggesting on national TV (well, MSNBC anyway) that we should repeal the 16th Amendment. Atta boy, Tom. You win the wingnut award tonight.
However, especially given my pro-Romney post of a couple of days ago, where I picked him as the likely GOP nominee, I have to say that he was the one candidate who most made me want to leave the room screaming. I guess now I understand the instinctive revulsion some people feel toward Hillary Clinton’s speaking style. To me, Romney looked like the perfect Stepford candidate, pulled out of a mold somewhere and propped up on a stage where he’d stand there looking good and spouting endless pieties designed to say as little as possible and offend the fewest possible viewers. I half expected someone to come up at the end, remove his battery pack, and carry him off the stage. Brrr.
POSTSCRIPT: 
Just to be clear, this has nothing to do with Romney’s actual positions, which are no more objectionable than any other Republican candidate’s. Maybe less so, in fact. Pure gut reaction, though, is: Brrr.
LATE UPDATE: I don’t know how meaningful this is, but here’s the SurveyUSA poll of who won the debate. Apparently it was Giuliani, though the results look to me like they mostly just track how popular the candidates were before the debate even took place. But there it is anyway. Raw data for political junkies.
REALLY THE LAST UPDATE: That SurveyUSA poll is only for California. I didn’t notice that when I tossed it up late last night.
