Time Magazine’s Joe Klein made some great points in his latest dispatch from the campaign trail – this one from the corn fields of Iowa.  Oracle Joe predicts: 

… if nominated, Romney will be formidable in the general election.
 
Listen to him speak. Listen to what he has to say about Iraq. Actually, he has practically nothing to say about Iraq—which leaves him plenty of room to maneuver in the autumn of 2008. He also doesn’t have much to say to Republicans about his signal achievement as Governor: the nation’s first universal-health-insurance plan. But if he’s running against Hillary Clinton, Romney will be able to say, “You couldn’t get your Big Government plan passed. I got my private-enterprise plan passed through a Democratic legislature.” He’ll also be able to say his last name is neither Clinton nor Bush—no small advantage after the past 20 years.
 
Unlike Clinton, Romney has shown a tendency to get flustered under pressure—a question about why his five handsome sons were not serving in the war he supports left him boggled. But he is smart and pleasant and tells the most risqué joke that I’ve ever heard from a presidential candidate: “I asked Ann, my wife, ‘Did you ever in your wildest dreams believe I would be running for President?’ She told me, ‘You weren’t in my wildest dreams.’” He’s not in his party’s wildest dreams either, but he may well be its future. 

Now I don’t agree with Joe’s assertion that Mitt gets flustered under pressure.  I’ll grant you that he was surprised by the question – a  question which is invalid on its face and has no place in the campaign.  You don’t get where Mitt is by getting flustered under pressure.  Other than that, great column Joe.
 
Forbes’ Shannon McCaffery reports on details from Mitt’s blind trust.  The MSM is sifting through the FEC report – some 50 pages in length – and are finding out that some of Mitt’s investments conflict with his policy statements.  I don’t know why this is surprising.  It actually proves the trust really is blind and Mitt has nothing to do with the day-to-day operation of it.  Its taking awhile to sort out because – well – Mitt has a lot of cash.
 
The AJC’s Jim Galloway reports on a recent Mitt trip to Hot-lanta.
 
The Street’s Brett Arends writes that Mitt has been hit by the recent stock market correction.  No revelations here.  Sometimes you win.  Sometimes you lose.  Sometimes it rains.  Seasoned investment types know this.
 
The Kansas City Star’s Rhonda Lokeman (published at Centre Daily) gets today’s cheap shot award.  Ms. Lokeman knows little about Mitt and less about Mormons.  She thinks since Mitt has served in LDS Church leadership he must be passionate about his religion.  This is probably true.  But then she goes a bridge or two too far by stating that “anyone who the step to ascend your church’s hierarchy” must also have “ambition”.
 
I won’t get into the rest of Lokeman’s waste of space, but I will say this:  Memo to Rhonda Lokeman:  I will grant you the benefit of the doubt as to your knowledge of LDS Church structure and leadership.  I’ll even give you a quick tutorial so you don’t make the mistake of slandering the good men and women who serve as LDS church leaders again.  Please take notes.
 
One does not “ascend” to leadership in the LDS Church.  Passion has little if anything to do with who sits in the big chair – ambition doesn’t figure into the equation at all.  Men like Mitt who serve as Bishops and Stake Presidents do so at great personal and familial sacrifice.  They don’t draw a check or receive compensation of any kind.  Church leaders are called from their congregations – they don’t campaign for the job.  The current President of the LDS Church (Gordon B. Hinckley) once stated that no man in his right mind would actually seek ecclesiastical office.  For the record, yet again, this is not a theological race.  The sooner you figure that out, the sooner people can actually focus on something that really matters.  End Memo.
 
The USAToday’s Memmott & Lawrence report on Mitt’s ideas about the “minimum wage”.  I don’t think he and “leading Dems” see eye to eye on the minimum wage.  If that issue were taken out of politics (where it belongs), Hillary, et. al. would have less to complain about.
 
WBAP’s Mark Davis says that Mitt is doing a good job building a bridge to the evangelical community.  Thanks for the props, Mark, but we’ll just have to agree to disagree about Mitt being required to answer Mormon doctrinal questions.  That’s what LDS.ORG is for.
 
The Chicago Sun Times’ Bill Zwecker reports that Mitt’s campaign is no fan of September Dawn.  This movie’s producers know that Mitt’s rising media coverage is the only hope they have of ever making back their production investment.  This movie has “flop” written all over it.  Don’t believe me?  Then ask them why they keep pushing the release date further back down the calendar.
 
As for Political Derby’s Ethan Boivie – there is such a thing as stretching a metaphor too far.  Any further and Ethan might get whiplash.
 
John Herbert writes for the obscure paper Hernando Today.  Never heard of it?  Me neither.  Herbert’s bigoted anti-Mormon rant doesn’t do much to raise Hernando’s stock.  So you were forced to see an English copy of the Book of Mormon while in Argentina.  Big deal, John.  Grow up.
 
And finally, the NRO’s Rich Lowry says its time for Cheap Shot Sam to fold the tent and go home.  Well said, Rich.