all the world's a stage, so we might as well have good actors

I'd resigned myself to quietly hoping for Mitt Romney to win the GOP nomination, because I think that among the GOP candidates still in the race, he would do the least damage if he actually won the general. Actually I could even go a step further: Romney is not someone with whom I agree on very much, and in fact he and I probably have some vastly different values and ideas about what America is and ought to be. I'd hope that we could agree at least on the fact that one of the great things about America is that people who have vastly different values and ideas about what America ought to be can peacefully sort out their differences and coexist. And I suspect that if he were not busy running for the nomination of a party that is currently in the hands of crazy people, he might privately admit as much himself. But at the end of the day, I think he'd probably be a competent executive with whom I have some philosophical differences. And for me, competence supersedes ideology (within reason--I wouldn't want a competent Nazi, for example.)

I also think Barack Obama is a competent executive with whom I have a different set of philosophical differences. And at this point, I find them more palatable, and would likely vote accordingly between the two of them.

But now I'm thinking...fuck that noise. Professor Bainbridge is on to something here:

At the end of the day, however, what likely will tip the scales for me is the sheer entertainment factor. Romney versus Obama will be a snoozefest, mainly because Romney elicits no passion from anybody. Newt versus Barak[sic], however, could be vastly entertaining. Two really smart guys, both of whom are good speakers, and both of whom will be at least affecting being really pissed off at the other and the other's base. If the Newt who tore into John King the other day shows up at the debates, they will be truly great TV. Since I don't think anybody in Washington or running to be in Washington can fix the problems we face, why not vote for the circus?

I don't think I could bring myself to vote for Newt--actually the closed caucuses in WA state mean I won't be voting for anybody until the general election anyway--but yeah, at this point, I kind of want to see the show.