All's Fair...

I've been saying forever now that the race for the Republican nomination is between Mitt Romney and everybody else. For simplicity’s sake, I’ll no longer refer to McCain, Huckabee and Giuliani in individual terms. They’re all pulling in the same direction, so lumping them together isn’t that big of a sin. Loyal readers (all three of you), I dub the Anti-Romney candidate(s) “McHuckabiani”. Cheesy? Yes. But hey, it worked for Brangelina.

Lest you be deceived by the media in thinking my premise is incorrect, here are excerpts from Time magazine's Ana Marie Cox that came out yesterday. The article, entitled “The I Hate Romney Club” highlights the personal vendetta of the other candidates against Governor Romney. Not to say that it isn’t their prerogative- after all, it’s a free country. However, for purposes of full disclosure, I think that the people who dedicate their hard-earned money and time to these campaigns should know that their funds may be treated as “Spoiler money” and nothing else. Anybody donating to Huckabee right now has got to realize this. Anyway, this is a fantastic article. Read on…

“…this week it was Giuliani who dropped out of the race and endorsed McCain, praising him as an "American hero."

The endorsement was a reflection of the authentic respect McCain and Giuliani have for each other. But that's not all the two candidates share. The endorsement deal was solidifed when both campaigns stayed at the Deerfield Hilton in Florida, following the Republican debate in Boca Raton on January 24. The two campaigns' staff mingled easily over drinks. Acknowledging that his candidate was not likely to survive a defeat in Florida, a Giuliani aide approached one of the McCain senior staffers. Come Wednesday, he said, "Just tell us what want us to do — we've got to stop him."

"Him," of course, is Mitt Romney, the candidate who seems to be uniting his Republican rivals almost as much as Hillary Clinton. "The degree to which campaigns' personal dislike for Mitt Romney has played a part in this campaign cannot be underestimated," says an adviser to one of those rival campaigns.

…At times, this apparent rancor among the other candidates toward Romney has seemed like a schoolyard pact — for example, in the many snarky comments aimed at Romney during the Republican debate on Jan. 5, just before the New Hampshire primary. The campaigns have denied there's any political collusion going on; they insist all of them simply feel the same way about Romney.

To be sure, the candidates' staffs do seem to have bonded in their dislike of Romney. "It was very common for e-mails to be flying around between the Thompson, McCain and Giuliani campaigns," says the former Thompson staffer, "Saying, 'No matter what happens with us, we all need to make sure it's not him.'" The staffer says that campaigns would share opposition research on Romney and offer each other tips on how best to undermine him: "Like, 'Hey, I saw you hit Mitt on immigration — have you thought about going after him on this issue?" In some cases, the attitude even extends to the top of the campaigns. The night of the Iowa caucuses, after getting a congratulatory call from McCain, Huckabee told the candidate, according to aides: "Now it's your turn to kick his butt."

Wasn’t that fascinating? Is their now any doubt about what the Romney campaign is up against? McHuckabiani is going to be tough to beat tomorrow.