Barbara Bush: Let’s face it, this is the worst campaign ever

Sounds like she means it in a “I can’t believe how mean people are to the RINOs” way whereas I mean it in a “these candidates are terrible beyond my wildest imaginings” way. But let’s not quibble over petty differences. Let’s find common ground.

Worst campaign evah:

The 2012 presidential campaign may have eight months to go, but former first lady Barbara Bush has already given it a bad review.

“I think it’s been the worst campaign I’ve ever seen in my life,” she said Monday at Southern Methodist University during a conference on the influence of the nation’s first ladies. “I hate that people think compromise is a dirty word. It’s not a dirty word,” she said…

On a question about the loss of civility in Washington, Laura Bush recalled seeing bitter cartoons about Abraham Lincoln and diplomatically said, “You see that and you realize it’s just a part of American politics.”

But her mother-in-law disagreed. “I think the rest of the world is looking at us these days and saying, ‘What are you doing?’”

What we’re doing, thanks to the RNC’s decision to use a proportional delegate system this year, is dragging out a campaign in which a lot of people seem to have lost interest. Like J-Pod, I find myself hoping Romney has a big night tomorrow, not because I’m on Team Mitt but because increasingly I’m on Team Grim Reaper:

The GOP primary has become a real-life version of the nightmare scenario in Luis Bunuel’s surreal 1962 film “The Exterminating Angel.” A group of people meet for a dinner party in Mexico City, then finds they can’t leave the dining room — for days and weeks — and turn on each other, commit suicide, offer sacrifices to the gods, etc.

Conservatives have all become like those guests: getting no nourishment from the endless primary, learning nothing new, getting crabby and eating each other alive…

A Romney triumph Tuesday would put enormous pressure on Santorum and Gingrich to surrender to reality and leave the race.

Our chances for blissful escape from the Exterminating Angel are in the hands of Ohioans and Tennesseans. Let us out, dear Buckeyes. Liberate us, glorious Volunteers. Please.

Yeah, if Mitt wins Ohio and Tennessee, that could all but do it. On the other hand, if Santorum upsets him in one or both of those and Gingrich underperforms in Georgia, Newt might finally fall on his sword and end up extending the race for several more months as his supporters flow to Santorum. (Said Santorum of Super Tuesday, “We’re winning. Whether we end up with the most votes or not [in Ohio], we’re winning.”) The thing is, there’s a fair chance that Gingrich will do better tomorrow than Santorum will. He’s set to clean up in Georgia while it’s possible that Santorum will win only in Oklahoma; depending upon how they fare in other states, Newt may emerge with more delegates between the two of them, which means more paralysis on the Not Romney side. Also, BuzzFeed noticed this morning that Santorum’s begun to mention that he and his wife are “spending down their savings” to keep the campaign going even as three of their kids approach college age. If he loses decisively to Mitt in the battleground states tomorrow, he may decide that he simply can’t justify the expense of a long longshot campaign. Advantage: Newt?

If you’re interested in hearing Barbara Bush defend Romney to the hosts of “The Five,” head on over to Mediaite. (ABC wonders: Since when does the Bush family blanch at harshly negative campaigning?) Otherwise, via the Daily Caller, here’s Scarborough jumping aboard Team Reaper as well. Exit question: It’s probably a bad sign that some Republican strategists are gaming out whom they’d rather lose with in November, huh? Oh well. We knew that moment was coming.

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