But we knew he wasn’t running. He was building too many mansions, vowing to talk a lot about Mormonism, and sounding eerily like Elizabeth Warren. He may still have his sights set on becoming president -– of the Latter-day Saints. In that contest, he gets an "up" arrow. ALL the way up.
Back on Earth, Romney's departure was one of the events that allowed inveterate media categorizers to give shape to the early GOP race. No Mitt No Mo’ made Jeb Bush the head of the Establishment. Scott Walker wowed the Evangelical/nativist crowd in Iowa, which made him King of the (Steve) King Caucus. Marco Rubio’s boffo turn at a Koch brothers retreat gave him the lead in the heated contest to be Koch candidate-as-wholly-owned-subsidiary.
We dedicate this purest-of-pure-horse-race Trail to the Chief edition to Jonathan Alter (now of The Daily Beast) and Mickey Kaus (now of The Daily Caller), who invented the prototype at Newsweek magazine back in the day.
The idea, then as now, is that what Campaign World thinks and says is relevant, sort of. We need to cover it.
At least in a goofy chart.
And are you on Yo? We are. We'll Yo you whenever we get word of an official campaign announcement, so you'll be the first to know when a candidate has joined the horse race. Like, for real.
Candidate Photos: Getty, Associated Press