No reaccionar sobremanera y esperar a ser el nominado por defecto

Es lo que le recomienda Ross Douthat (New York Times) a Romney:

The first primary isn’t for four months — an eternity in politics. Perry has been exposed to the national spotlight for all of two weeks. He hasn’t shared a stage with the other candidates yet, hasn’t spent much time on the trail, hasn’t had to wed the vision of his candidacy to the more perishable reality of a campaign. In the next round of debates, Michele Bachmann and the lesser right-wing contenders will have every incentive to attack Perry, because he’s siphoning away their kind of voter. If Sarah Palin gets into the race (which I still doubt), she’ll have to take the fight to Perry as well. Meanwhile, unless Jon Huntsman starts getting traction, Romney doesn’t have to worry about any of the rival candidates making a play for his core supporters. (If Perry is the only plausible alternative, the Massachusetts governor has the moderate-East Coast vote locked up.) And once it becomes clear that Chris Christie (alas!) isn’t riding over the hill to save them, he can probably count on a steady drumbeat of favorable press from a movement-conservative establishment that’s heretofore been keeping him at arm’s length. So why not wait and see a little bit, let Perry have his moment in the sun, and save his punches for the months when more voters start to pay attention?

The greatest danger to Romney’s candidacy — the thing that could destroy him long before the voting even started — has always been that a more appealing establishment candidate would enter the race, catch fire, and swipe his core constituency out from under him. But so far, the men who could have played this role have either passed on the race entirely (Mitch Daniels, Jeb Bush, Paul Ryan, Haley Barbour, Jon Thune), flamed out early (Tim Pawlenty), or failed to move the needle (Huntsman). This has left Romney in exactly the position he wanted to occupy: He’s the most electable guy in the field, and he’s probably going to be the default choice for an establishment that can live with him even if it doesn’t love him.