Twisting the Knife

I have just read the best analysis of the current Republican presidential nomination race I've seen so far this year, and I've read more than a few. Written by Sean Trende of RealClearPolitics, it explains the "anybody but Romney" phenomenon in a way that really works for me, you should read it for yourself. First he says:

I think Romney’s problem isn’t that Republicans dislike him. It’s that no one loves him.

That certainly explains my feelings. If Mitt is nominated I'll vote for him, but without much enthusiasm. So what do Republican voters want? Trende says:

Republicans don’t look back at 1980 and 1984 fondly just because Reagan won. They do so because he crushed a president they had come to loathe.(snip) With Obama, there is a similar, if not deeper loathing, a sense that he is a charlatan whom the media has been covering for consistently over the past five years.

About the Gingrich interest, Trende concludes Republican voters want a fighter:

Many Republicans sense that Gingrich wouldn’t just play it safe. (snip) They see a candidate who would bludgeon Obama in debates, humiliate him in the campaign, and then spend four years twisting the knife into the liberal intelligentsia. (snip) In other words, they see something to love.