The other night I thought was watching an episode of ‘The American Experience’ about the Romneys, but it turned out to be Downton Abbey… still worked for me (Republicans are such a ‘Mary’ and ‘Edith’ hybrid).

The GOP race started off in Iowa, which while full of its share of those cheering on the rapture, is still a moderate place in the Midwest compared to Nebraska, Kansas or the Dakotas (they still count right?). Last night it came to New Hampshire, which gave local neighbor (Utah, Michigan, Massachusetts, France, where isn’t he a neighbor?) and quality aluminum siding salesman Mitt Romney a still unimpressive double-digit victory. But New Hampshire, like Iowa, is one of those states that allows gay marriage, obviously feeling the taint of being next to Vermont.

Hey speaking of taint, now we have a real conservative state coming up, the land where making a political statement can mean firing on ol’ Fort Sumter, South Carolina. A place where Rick Perry, like Edmund Ruffin, intends to make his last stand. The Republicans got a bit crazier in New Hampshire, Newt Gingrich, even got called out for being mean by Grand Wizard Limbaugh.  South Carolina seems a bad place to rally around your prospective leader, but maybe Romney can pull it off.

Jefferson Davis did…for a while.