Chewing glass. Euthanizing unwanted puppies. Watching “Diff’rent Strokes” reruns.
Ask a lot of GOP voters, and those or similar activities are what they’re apt to tell you they equate with the prospect of making Mitt Romney their standard bearer in 2012.
Yes, I know Romney has held the lead in polls more than any other GOP candidate has over the past few months. But he’s nowhere near the 50 percent mark, and a chunk of voters are still undecided. So assuming you don’t count Jon Huntsman — and why would you? — Romney is benefiting from being the only guy to the left of a heavily populated, divided conservative field.
And that’s evidently a shaky place to be.
A number of the other GOP candidates — one after another, in one way or another — have leapt ahead of him at least briefly. Michele Bachmann won the Iowa straw poll, and Ron Paul was a close second. Rick Perry soared past Romney just days after entering the race, then faltered in debates.