So far the President has handled the re-election start with skill.

[boxman15]

8. Exactly, which is why the GOP powers that be want Mitt.

He's not batshit insane like the rest of them, and he's flip-flopped enough to pretty much be unelectable (if Dems and the Obama campaign do their job), but he's not a controversial face for the Republican Party.

They want to stay the course. They want to keep having power in Congress in order to further delay true economic progress and then blame Democrats in 2016 for doing nothing. Mitt gives them the best shot at doing that. At that point, they'll pull out their dream candidate in either Jeb Bush or Chris Christie in order to beat the Democratic candidate in 2016.

If Newt was the nominee, he'd be so controversial, so unlikable, so proto-typical asshole Republican, that the GOP would suffer monumental setbacks in 2012 and likely keep them out of power, in Congress or in the White House, for possibly a decade. 2012 would be for Democrats what 1984 was for Republicans.