Which made Gingrich the only nominally credible alternative to Romney from the outset, but he has most of the same problems Hillary did for the same reasons, plus a lot of other baggage she lacked. He has only managed to stick around thanks to large donations from his billionaire casion owner buddy, just as Paul survives on netizenship; I have no idea how Santorum stays funded (maybe the Vatican is paying for it. )

Romney has all the insider connections to party leaders and Wall Street donors, both of whom know a perceived moderate is their only chance against Obama. Grass roots wants are irrelevant; we are talking about the Greedy Old Party, after all. The rank and file base only matter to the extent their turnout is vital on election day, but Republicans tend to see voting as a patriotic civic duty more than Democrats do, and despise Obama so deeply they will show up for any GOP nominee. Many are boll weevil Democrats now fully converted to the GOP; ironically (and tellingly) the most reliable GOP voters are those who once proudly declared their support for even yellow dogs who ran as Democrats. This race was over before it began; the only question is, as it always was, when Romney will be nominated, not if.