(JEFF HAYNES/REUTERS) - Expect a strong race for best supporting actor/actress in the comedy category, if not for the nomination.
The good times — at least for political reporters and pundits — are pretty much over. It has been a wonderfully wacky GOP primary fight, with endless debates and new front-runners du jour.
Conservative Republicans were saying “anyone but Romney.” Reporters were rooting for “everyone and Romney.”
But the post-New Hampshire reality is setting in.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry got 1,766 votes in New Hampshire. That’s out of nearly a quarter of a million votes cast. A whopping 0.7 percent. (He beat Herman Cain, who had already dropped out, by only 1,600 votes.)
Seems pretty certain that the implausible Perry, who gave us that historic “oops” moment that the press milked for weeks, is gone.
We’ve already lost the always fun Rep. Michele Bachmann and her delightful husband. Ditto for Cain, the former Godfather’s Pizza CEO, who, in addition to allegations of serious sexual misconduct — which, by the way, we naturally chased after — treated us to that hilarious appearance before the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorial board. Who can forget him trying to focus on the right Libya — as opposed to that other one — and to get control of “all of this stuff twirling around in my head.”
Former Utah governor Jon Huntsman wasn’t exactly Mr. Excitement, but he provided a little ballast at times. He came in a disappointing third after practically moving from Kalorama to New Hampshire for the past few months.
Even worse, he’s now trailing comedian Stephen Colbert in South Carolina — the next primary, on Jan. 21 — with 4 percent to Colbert’s 5 percent in a hypothetical matchup, according to a Public Policy Polling.
Former House speaker Newt Gingrich, despite the New Hampshire Union Leader’s full-throated endorsement, got only 9.4 percent of the vote, tied with former senator Rick Santorum. Both of them look to be on the ropes now — Newt’s bravado notwithstanding.
And the 76-year-old Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.) may hang in there a bit longer, but he came in more than 16 points behind Romney on Tuesday.
There’s plenty of big money around, so candidates will probably stagger on, but they might as well invite country singer Lucinda Williams to the Monday debate in Myrtle Beach to sing a line from an old hit: “It’s over — I know it, but I can’t let go.”
Republicans and reporters may be in denial, but the reality is, barring some miracle, it’s going to be the boring, awkward Mitt against the used Barack — no longer the champion of hopey-changey.
Well, there’s always Casey Anthony .
We watch for you
We screened the debut episode of former senator Arlen Specter’s new TV show, which airs Friday night, and we’ve saved you the half-hour with this roundup of highlights.
First, the real star of the show isn’t the former Senate Judiciary Committee chairman and his ambling ruminations on money in politics, but rather former senator Fred Thompson’s beard.
“The Law & Order”actor — one of Specter’s guests — sports a hipster-esque salt-and-pepper goatee that we thought was the most newsworthy feature of the talk show.
The snappiest line of the program, which airs on Maryland Public Television, came courtesy of former senator Evan Bayh (R-Ind.). “An immaculate contribution,” Bayh dubbed a political donation that doesn’t affect a lawmaker’s vote.
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