Last Call

The final debate before the GOP primary in South Carolina was still uniformly awful, but if anything it shows that Mitt may end up being the weakest major party nominee in decades.

It was a huge shift for Romney, who’s emerged from more than a dozen debates as a winner, mostly because no one could land a blow against him. There have been gaffes a plenty, of course — from “I’m running for office for Pete’s sake” to the $10,000 bet — but Romney’s always had the air of a frontrunner, rather than the guy playing catch up.

That wasn’t true Thursday. After days of stumbling through stories about his tax rate and his resistance to release his returns, Romney’s bad few days came to a head at the debate.

When asked whether he’d release more than a single year’s tax returns, Romney said “maybe,” prompting boos and jeers from the audience. “I don’t know how many years I’ll release.”

“I’m not going to apologize for being successful,” he said. “I’m not suggesting these people are doing that but I know that Democrats will go after me on that basis and that’s why I want to release these things all at the same time. “

I honestly thought John King served up volleyball after volleyball just to see who could spike Romney in the head the hardest.  He got mauled by all three opponents, while Romney just fell apart, spewing vapid talking points while he searched in vain for a way out.

I'll tell you what, President Obama is going to make shredded wheat out of this guy.