The Battle of the Mitts

By GAIL COLLINS
New York Times

Ever since Barack Obama won big in Iowa, Mitt Romney has been running as a “change” candidate. It is a little strange to see a guy whose party has been in power for years standing in front of a big blue “Washington is Broken” sign, but I think we have already determined that Romney is nothing if not really, really adaptable.

“I brought change, and they can only talk about change,” he says in his stump speech, citing his work as an Olympics czar (change is better parking) and businessman (change is fewer employees). He also vows to turn Washington “inside out.”

We will pause here briefly to envision what interesting trinkets would come tumbling out of the Bush Justice Department.

For a long while, Romney seemed the logical Republican nominee since he has a great résumé, a lovely family from whom he is not estranged and a ton of money. (At his campaign stops, Mitt jokingly thanks his wife for agreeing to invest so much of the family fortune on his presidential prospects. Ann Romney’s smile has begun to seem a little thin at this point.)

(Continued here.)