i guess what i don't understand about american politics is its amazing free flight from the world. lose a primary and the question is, how we gonna change the message? so romney in michigan suddenly became a wild "outsider" who will fight washington,, which is "broken." how will he fight washington? with "optimism instead of washington-style pessimism." the idea of mitt romney, establishment technocrat if ever there was one, as the barbarian outsider is just too funny. but the general point is that these people can turn on a dime and simply become someone else, then return etc. in the general election, if he's facing hillary, romney might become a woman, or possibly a hermaphrodite. facing obama, he'll be black enough: extreme ghetto. what's disturbing is that people don't just fall down laughing, that this revelation of the politician as an entirely empty husk or a blob that can take any form does not merely lead to total derision. that people can persuade anyone of anything in this way is just completely incomprehensible.