A flaming bag of shinola left on Team Mitt’s doorstep by Michael Scherer of Time mag. Skip ahead to about 40 percent of the way through the vid, which Scherer shot two years ago in Iowa. Seems like every day I end up writing a post insisting that the CW is wrong about how Mitt is finished, and then inevitably some fun new soundbite emerges that makes me gulp. Friendly advice to the Mittheads: If there’s more where this came from, you’d best dig it up and start leaking it to media outlets now so that it’s nice and stale by next year. Because if this had dropped in the middle of the primaries, it would have gone off like a bomb. Good lord.

Needless to say, it’s no coincidence that there’s been a surge in coverage of dark horses lately. Pawlenty, Thune, even Rick Santorum(!): Who will be the slightly stiff social con who steps in if Romney implodes? (Exit answer: Thune!)