Willard Cracks

By Sniffles

Well, it was probably only natural.

You come under fire for weeks, and months, and maybe even years, from the crazy nitwit base of your party. And after you choose a running mate and you get no bounce, and after you have a convention and you get no bounce, and even after you address the National Guard on September 11, you not only get no bounce — you come under renewed assault from the wingnuts. So, you just lose it.

That's what we cats think has happened to Willard Mitt Romney in the last 24 hours.

Given reports that some in the Romney camp urged caution, we can only come to the conclusion that Willard's despicable performance on Libya and Egypt was, while Americans were still under fire in Cairo and Benghazi, a from-the-gut, thin-skinned reaction from a panicked nominee himself.

We can't imagine the agonies that Republican advisers like Ed Gillespie are enduring (not that we feel sorry for Ed Gillespie).

The President put it very succinctly today when he said: "There's a broader lesson to be learned here. Governor Romney seems to have a tendency to shoot first and aim later. As President, one of the things I've learned is you can't do that."

Here's our prediction. Watch for the Republican Party to distance itself even further from its hapless nominee — to give up on 2012 and set its sights on 2016. It's coming.

UPDATE, September 13: We cats have been supported in our theory by Andrea Mitchell, who told the gang on "Morning Joe" that "It seemed to be almost a response to the fact that Laura Ingraham, Rush Limbaugh and others the day before had REALLY been criticizing [Romney]... for not being tough enough... And it showed SUCH bad judgment."