Romney's Own Petard

Josh Marshall notes that Huckabee's Iowa surge could doom Mitt Romney, and Andrew on a not-unrelated note excerpts messages from folks citing theological disagreements with Mormons as a reason not to vote for him, before lamenting:

It seems to me a shame that a largely competent, decent, Rockefeller Republican like Mitt Romney should be a victim of the party the Christianists have constructed. Compared with Giuliani, he is a blast of adulthood.

There is some shame here, but I don't pity Romney. He could have tried to run as a political heir to George Romney on the basis of his record in Massachusetts, as a moderate technocrat. But he decided to try to remake himself as the Christian Right candidate, so it's really pretty fitting for him to be laid low by a real-deal preacher man like Huckabee or even a more plausible actor like Hollywood Fred.