Every week brings another controversy or another debate – and another Republican POTUS front-runner.  And once again, the GOP base continues its eternal (and fruitless) search for the Perfect Conservative.  Each time a candidate peaks, they stick their foot in their mouth or some issue about their past pops up and they drop in the polls in favor of the next flavor of the month.  It was Mitt, then it was Michelle, then it was Rick, and now it’s Herman/Herb.  Every time a new flavor appears, they either blow their own popularity (cf. Bachmann) or the base picks them apart (cf. Perry).

But the issue here not the flaws of the latest flavor of the month.  The problem in the the GOP race is/are the many flaws of Mitt Romney.  The GOP base is in search of Not Romney.  Romney is a mediocre candidate and about 75% of the GOP seems to know it.  But no one has been able to put him away.  Romney is a smooth communicator.  He does well in debates.  He’s articulate and looks like a President.  But almost no one wants him to actually BE one.  It appeared that another flavor of the month might emerge in Gov. Chris Christie or (heh) Sarah Palin.  This week’s events put those rumors to bed.  And it really didn’t matter – they would have gone the same way as the prior contenders.  The only question now is if Herman Cain can buck the trend and demonstrate to the GOP base that HE will lead the nation out of it’s mess better than Mitt.

But rather than having ME try to make the case about Romney, why don’t we let Jon Stewart tell us about him? (h/t AoSHQ)

Rick Perry tried to paint Romney as a flip-flopper during the last debate, but Stewart does a far, far better job of it than Perry.  And this doesn’t even begin to address my personal concern about Romney – Romneycare.

At this point, it does remain likely that Romney will become the GOP nominee.  Just as John McCain did in 2008, he appears to be taking the “outlast ’em all” strategy, and until now, it has worked…at least in the polls.  The proof will come when voters actually get their say.  And if Mitt Romney winds up as the GOP nominee, let’s hope there are no more flip flops and he remains in current form as Good Mitt rather than Evil Liberal Mitt.