Republicans buy the Brooklyn Bridge

One of the things that has struck me as this campaign has wound down is how Republicans have come to embrace Mitt Romney, a man who in some ways embodies everything they hate about politics and politicians.

It has always seemed to me that conservatives and Republicans have tended to hold politicians to higher and possibly more unrealistic standards than, say, Democrats or the mythical independent voter.

Republicans claim to be disgusted by political spin. They can't stand flip-floppers. They disdain anyone who can be seen as a career politician. They are cynical and distrusting of politicians because, as they sometimes say, they're all a bunch of liars who just tell people what they want to hear.

Enter Mitt Romney.

I mean, really. Mitt's record is so full of flip-flops, about-faces, doubletalk and dishonesty, it seems redundant to go over it all again. Abortion. Health Care. Cap and Trade. Gun Control. Over and over again, Romney has changed his position to fit the race and the moment he's in. He's told outright lies, been called on it, shrugged and repeated the lies again.

And yet conservatives have seemed to embrace him here in the last months and weeks of the campaign. It this just a sign of how desperate they are to defeat Obama?

I have to say, at one point I didn't expect this race to be close. Yet Romney pulled it together and came into that first debate with a whole new persona and approach, and suddenly it was game on. The electorate saw a moderate, articulate, passionate candidate, who bore little resemblance to the Mitt Romney who appeared at the Republican National Convention. And that seemed to make the difference.

And I think the subsequent bump in the polls was enough to bring along the Republican base, because they started to hope. They decided that if Romney really could pull it off, they could live with a little betrayal of their principles. It's a human thing; goodness knows those on the left have put up with flawed candidates. One of those flawed candidates has been Obama's best surrogate, and Barack's going to owe Bill big time when this is all over.

So they let go, and let Mitt. They trusted him. That's all a candidate can ask for, and Romney responded with a sometimes-inspired (sometimes not-so-much, as in the foreign policy debate) October that brought us to this: a very close race, in doubt until almost the end--some would say still a tossup on the day before.

Still the irony is something I find striking. The epitome of a slick, say-anything candidate, supported and loved by his principled, no-spin-zone base. Politics is truly strange.