Romney dominates

Mitt Romney solidified his status this week as the candidate to beat in the race for the Republican presidential nomination. The former Massachusetts governor dominated Tuesday’s GOP debate and picked up a valuable endorsement from New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a favorite of the Republican establishment. Romney was widely considered the winner of the New Hampshire debate, which focused on the economy, after giving another solid, professional performance. Herman Cain, the former Godfather’s Pizza executive currently in second place, was also judged to have done well, despite being forced to defend the details of his “9-9-9” economic plan, which calls for 9 percent business, income, and national sales taxes. Former front-runner Rick Perry gave another weak performance, analysts said, after slumping into third place in the polls. “Debates are not my strong suit,” he told reporters.

That’s an understatement, said Steve Kornacki in Salon.com. The stakes were high for Perry going into this debate. Conservatives still seek someone to “deliver them from the inevitability of Romney,” and after three lackluster debates, this was Perry’s chance to step up. “He failed.” All he could muster were “dull, vague responses” to questions on the economy, revealing a “staggering” lack of preparation. Someone may yet challenge Romney’s primacy in this race, but after his showing this week, it won’t be Perry.

Don’t look to Herman Cain either, said John Dickerson in Slate.com. The Tea Party favorite was as “amiable” as ever during the debate, but failed to answer the “serious questions” about his 9-9-9 tax plan, which the GOP’s anti-tax lobby dislikes and economists say is unworkable. Unless Cain proves 9-9-9 is more than just a catchy slogan, he’ll remain a “one-note wonder.”

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Romney is now the “only remotely plausible” candidate for the nomination, said John Podhoretz in the New York Post. That’s partly because of the failure of his rivals—but also because he’s been “running for president almost nonstop for five years now” and has learned how the game works. Conservatives still question his “fidelity to ideological principle,” but with three months to go until the first caucuses, there’s a growing suspicion that he’s “going to have to do.”