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Romney, in case you haven't heard, embraced a healthcare reform law in Massachusetts five years ago that ended up being the model for the national program that President Obama pushed through Congress without a single Republican vote last year. He's also dogged by the impression that he's an unusually spineless opportunist (the result of the extraordinary pains he took to win over socially liberal voters in Massachusetts before rebranding himself as right-wing culture warrior) who doesn't actually believe ... anything.

The title suggests that Romney is the favorite. Then immediately the thrashing begins. He's Obama-like on healthcare. They apply the phrase "spineless opportunist" to him. He brings nothing to the table (doesn't believe in anything.)

Thus, even though the rest of the GOP field isn't (at this point) particularly strong or deep, Romney -- despite being crowned the front-runner as soon as the 2008 campaign ended -- is lucky if he breaks 20 percent in polls of national Republicans. The most recent Gallup poll, released earlier this week, has him at 16 percent -- in a virtual tie with Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin.

The author groups him with Huckabee and Palin at this point by poll numbers.

And yet, despite all of this, I'd still bet that GOP's standard-bearer next year will end up being Mitt Romney. Why? Even though he disagrees with my conclusion, the New Republic's Jonathan Chait offers a useful guide to analyzing the emerging Republican field:

Subterfuge.

My view of the primary selection system is that it consists of two basic constituencies, the elites and the base. The elites want to find a candidate who is electable and committed to their policy agenda. The elites are the prime driver of the process; they can communicate, via organs like Fox News and The Weekly Standard, which candidates may be undeserving of serious consideration despite their emotional appeal to base voters. That’s how the elites have disqualified insurgent candidates like Pat Buchanan (too right-wing) and John McCain (too left-wing); they are now doing the same to Sarah Palin (too unelectable).

I like that word usage: via organs. The last time I heard the word organs in this context, it was usually describing elements of a totalitarian state.
Elites and base. The theory that elites control the base, and what choices they will have. Perhaps that is how the Democrats operate; however, the Republicans have ignored their base in many preceeding years, and paid dearly. Some theory. The motive of this article is next. What a gem.

That’s how the elites have disqualified insurgent candidates like Pat Buchanan (too right-wing) and John McCain (too left-wing); they are now doing the same to Sarah Palin (too unelectable).

He now tries to knock off Palin, calling her 'unelectable'. Palin is the one person they fear most.

So, if you want to find the next Republican nominee, you need to find a candidate who’s ~~acceptable to both elites and the base.~~anybody but Sarah Palin.

Most of this makes sense. Certainly, as I've written, the GOP elites won't allow a Palin nomination -- they've already taken great strides toward extinguishing her hopes.

Yes. Palin is out. I heard you the first time. Dream on. Last thing I heard was that she paid a visit to India (International recognition, small potatos, right?)

I'll skip past a few paragraphs of meaningless drivel here.

Meanwhile, Romney, for all his flaws, starts with a significant base of support -- or at least potential support. The elites still see him as an acceptable, maybe even preferable, option for the nomination and plenty of Republican voters are still open to supporting him. If you assume that Huckabee and Palin won't run (or that Palin, if she does, will be marginalized)

I suppose the author feels it necessary to take a third swipe.

That should be enough. This article isn't about Mitt Romney; it's a thinly veiled hit piece on Sarah Palin.