Williard M. Romney, heir apparent

To no one's surprise Willard won in New Hampshire last night. Majority consensus among the punderati is he's got the nomination locked up now. Certainly that's what the polls are saying but I'm still holding out hope that the cons can get their act together and disprove the assumptions. Not entirely a pipe dream I think.

While the exit data suggests he got significant support from Northern Tea Party types, Romney hasn't won the hearts of southern cons. If they can agree on a consensus candidate to consolidate the Not-Romney vote, everything could change. Certainly, that's what SC GOP Chair Chad Connelly is saying:

“Our voters are fiercely independent and pretty fickle,” Connelly told me over coffee at a downtown shop brilliantly named Immaculate Consumption. “They watch what happens in Iowa, they watch what happens in New Hampshire. They may take that under advisement kind of thing, but they’re going to make their own decisions.”

Not completely impossible the Palmetto State could surprise us. I mean, they do keep electing that nutcake Senator DeMint. One can dream there's some way to avoid the mind numbing boredom of eight months of Willard as King of the GOP Swill.

Meanwhile, if you want the lowdown on last night's festivities in the Granite State, I didn't pay much attention, so go read Charlie Pierce's account. In fact go read everything on his blog and his hilarious tweets at his new twitter account.

[Graphic by Donkey Hotey]

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]