Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann have shot out of the gate in the GOP nomination contest, but “sometimes it’s slow-and-steady that gets it done,” writes Aaron Blake of the Washington Post, and if there’s one thing Mitt Romney’s proven so far, it’s that he’s “very good at slow and steady.” The hares are still ahead in the polls, but over four tortoise-like debate performances, Romney has never stumbled, and, “no one has been able to penetrate the shell he has erected.”
Romney took a defensive stance from the beginning, with the so-called “Mittness Protection Program” limiting Romney’s visibility and gaffe opportunities, allowing him to build a frontrunner-style campaign. “Say what you want about Romney having been preparing for this campaign for the last three years,” Blake writes, but “it shows, and it has paid dividends.” (More Mitt Romney stories.)