Now, fueling the aura of inevitability, he is winning the endorsements of marquee Republicans like New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who considered his own challenge to Romney and the rest of the GOP field but decided against it.
Romney’s most ardent conservative critics have been left to rally around Herman Cain, simultaneously engaged in a book tour and presidential campaign, in a last-ditch effort to prevent his nomination.
None of this ensures that Romney will be the Republicans’ 2012 presidential nominee; there is another debate Tuesday in Las Vegas, as well as a primary calendar that could schedule meaningful contests as late as next March.
Similarly, it doesn’t ensure he would beat President Obama and his seasoned campaign team as the incumbent seeks reelection a year from now.
But with the primary field finally set and Perry, the closest challenger, struggling in debates and racing to develop policies Romney devised during his 2008 campaign or announced months ago, the Romney staff is focused on what it sees as an inevitable clash with Obama and the Democrats.
“Osama bin Laden was having a great day until the helicopters started hovering over his compound,’’ one top Romney adviser recently told the Globe. “We know the helicopters are coming for us at some point, but everything in this campaign has been geared toward that confrontation.’’
The president and his supporters lend credence to the analysis, training virtually all their focus on Romney rather than the rest of the GOP primary field.
“Rick Perry’s sudden decline and Herman Cain’s concurrent surge reinforce an important point about the primary: Republican voters are still desperately shopping for an alternative to Romney,’’ former White House spokesman Bill Burton, now running a pro-Obama “super PAC,’’ wrote in a media memorandum last week. “While he may well end up the nominee, it is only because their voters will have exhausted all other options.’’
