In which your humble hackish correspondent espies a metaphor for Romney’s entire campaign in one brief excerpt — nice, competent, but almost totally lacking political instinct. The “but they haven’t” chant never quite gets off the ground, and Mitt still hasn’t learned to knock it off with the silver medal stuff. It’s a bad yet memorable meme and it’s starting to stick to him. A simple “tonight wasn’t our night” would suffice.

That said, his campaign sent out a memo suggesting he’s in it for the long haul. Geraghty’s skeptical:

Where’s he going to win? I realize that after last night, we need to be cautious in putting our faith in polls, but for Romney, South Carolina’s not looking that great. Mid-December polls put him in pretty tough shape in Florida, and the second-place finisher in that state walks away with nada*. He’s nowhere in Pennsylvania. He’s not set to win New Jersey. You figure Rudy walks away with winner-take-all New York and Connecticut. (Although maybe Lieberman could help McCain there.)…

At some point, Mitt Romney’s got to go out and win a hotly-contested state.

Fred and Duncan Hunter may also be in it for the long haul. The “haul” in this case being as long as their fundraising gas tanks can sustain them.