Two weeks ago, this very space noted the odd timing of a New York Times Magazine story that marveled at Mitt Romney’s remarkable staying power, given the fact that, between the date the story was written and the date it ran, Romney had been overwhelmed by a Newt Gingrich surge. Gingrich was up by huge numbers in Iowa, South Carolina, Florida, and Ohio, and New Hampshire was looking too close for comfort. The post also noted that, given the breakneck pace at which GOP primary not-Mitts were rising and falling (see: Trump, Bachmann, Perry, Cain, et al), “everything here may be dated and wrong by the time you’re reading this.”
Well it wasn’t dated and wrong! Instead, Gingrich ran roughshod over Romney for two whole weeks. Now that’s over. So once again, it’s time to ask the same question that everybody asked when Trump and Bachmann and Perry and Cain collapsed: Are Republicans finally ready for a vigorous, lasting handshake with their inevitable nominee? (The GOP electorate ruled out a warm embrace with Romney long, long ago.)
And the answer is … maybe! But not quite yet.
The fresh batch of Public Policy Polling numbers detailing Gingrich’s Iowa implosion show Romney picking up steam there for the first time in forever. He’s still in bridesmaid mode, playing second fiddle to Ron Paul, but voters have finally stopped running from Romney like it’s the Friday after Thanksgiving in Walmart. Romney picks up four points in the PPP poll, placing second at 20 percent — his strongest showing in that poll since October. Public Policy Polling also notes that Romney stands to benefit from a continued Gingrich unraveling more than Paul does, “which could allow him to overtake Paul in the last two weeks.” Plus, Romney’s New Hampshire numbers are looking sunnier than they have in months. After months of anguished searching for anyone but Mitt, it looks like the GOP electorate is actually lining up behind their inevitable candidate.
On that note: Pay no attention to this piece about Jeb Bush’s eleventh-hour flirtation with a White House run. None at all.
–PAUL MCMORROW
BEACON HILL
On his Not Running a Hospital blog, Paul Levy spotlights two bills in the Legislature that impact costs, including one that would make health plans pay ambulance companies directly for emergency services rather than sending a check to the policyholder and making the companies collect.
The spring peeper is on its way to becoming the Bay State’s official amphibian.
The MetroWest Daily News likes the idea of collecting some sort of online sales tax at the state level, but points out that it is a problem that the federal government created and needs to solve.
Gaming commission chairman Stephen Crosby is not fazed by ongoing efforts to repeal casino legislation.
A special Lottery game that ends on New Year’s Eve is on pace to lose millions, since the game, which guarantees $10 million in prizes, has sold just a fifth of its available tickets.
MUNICIPAL MATTERS
The state’s Appellate Tax Board has denied a bid by the Boston Archdiocese to get back property taxes levied against it in Scituate on a shuttered church, setting the stage for other communities to collect taxes on unused church properties.
The Worcester City Council takes a step toward deciding whether city clerks and assistant clerks should be allowed to keep the money they collect for performing marriages at City Hall during work hours, the Telegram and Gazette reports.
A Lowell Sun editorial applauds the city and its 17 public sector unions for negotiating a move into the state’s Group Insurance Commission, which is expected to save the city between $5 million and $9 million a year.
Dartmouth officials are considering a plan to install GPS devices on all town-owned vehicles.
The group pursuing a recall of Lawrence Mayor William Lantigua works out a deal with the city that requires future petitions to be in Spanish and English but allows signatures gathered with the English-only petitions, the Eagle-Tribune reports.
In bankrupt Central Falls, Rhode Island, firefighters agree to cut their pensions, and municipal bondholders walk away whole.
NATIONAL POLITICS/WASHINGTON
Scott Brown is flexing his bipartisan muscles, denouncing House Republicans for trying to kill a move to temporarily extend a tax cut for workers and benefits for those out of work.
Without a camp, Occupy Boston protesters keep meeting, trying to decide their next move, WBUR reports. In his weekly Globe column, CommonWealth’s Paul McMorrow says Occupy activists have to decide whether they are reformers or revolutionaries.
ELECTION 2012
Following a Supreme Court decision last year that lifted limits on campaign spending by corporations, labor unions, and wealthy individuals, millions of dollars have already poured into the Republican presidential contest through so-called “Super PACs.”
Michael Goldman, in a Lowell Sun column, says political operatives are looking at Newt Gingrich the way they looked at George McGovern in 1972 – as someone who can’t win. Meanwhile, a liberal campaign watchdog group filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission charging Gingrich took campaign funds for his personal use.
The Weekly Standard says President Obama is eminently beatable. If, of course, Republicans stop eating their own.
And now for something completely different: How Ron Paul could stir things up if he decides to run as an independent. Slate wonders: What if Paul actually wins Iowa?
A New York Times editorial questions whether President Obama can translate middle-class angst into “an agenda for broad prosperity.”
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
What a Saudi prince’s investment in Twitter means for the microblogging company and the world.
Apple wins a patent complaint against Android, but has a wider-reaching case thrown out.
AT&T officially ends its $39 billion takeover bid for T-Mobile, paying $4 billion for the pleasure of doing so.
Who packs all the holiday boxes streaming out of Amazon.com warehouses? Retired folks who’ve parked their mobile homes on Amazon’s dime, that’s who.
A Boston Herald column questions how long the New York Times Co. can resist selling the Globe, now that the Times Co. is shedding its regional newspaper group. Notably, Jack Connors tells the Herald he hasn’t heard from his would-be Globe buyout partner, Aaron Kushner, in months; a source close to Kushner says his takeover group is still a thing.
EDUCATION
With some Salem schools faring poorly on standardized tests, more than 300 students sign up for after-school tutorial programs, the Salem News reports.
Scared straight? Some Cape Cod students visit the Barnstable County Correctional Facility.
Deaf students are introduced to video-relay technology during a chat with Santa.
HEALTH CARE
A report by the New England Center for Investigative Journalism finds that some life-saving drugs used by hospitals and ambulances are at dangerously low levels.
Nurses at 10 Boston-area hospitals owned by Steward Health Care System are traveling to the New York offices of the private equity firm that owns the company to protest what they say are cutbacks in staffing and services at the now for-profit hospitals.
Harvard Pilgrim Health Care will begin offering subscribers rewards payments if they are willing to receive care at lower-cost facilities.
Ron Paul wants to defend your right to drink raw milk.
TRANSPORTATION
MBTA commuter trains from the west, north, and south — in other words, everywhere — had problems with yesterday’s chilly weather. And winter doesn’t start until Thursday.
ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT
All this talk about Bob Kraft’s casino has taken attention away from the other Route 1 controversy Kraft is embroiled in — his bid to build a 425-foot tall (and growing) wind turbine at Gillette Stadium.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
The state’s scandal-plagued Probation Department authorized $47.9 million in payments last for attorneys to represent supposedly indigent defendants without screening them for financial eligibility, according to a report released by state Auditor Suzanne Bump.
A 37-year-old driver was arraigned yesterday on charges of motor vehicle homicide while drunk after she allegedly struck and killed a 63-year-old Haverhill woman who served as a foster mother to more than 200 children.
Nearly one of every three people will be arrested for some crime by the time they reach age 23, USA Today reports.