Go ahead and have your Texas primary, if you must

By Richard K. Barry

And the winner is... this guy.

In case you haven't been paying attention (and why would you?), there are still Republican primaries going on to determine who the GOP presidential nominee will be. Okay, we know who that will be, but process is process. God bless democracy.

Having said that, Mitt Romney is expected to get to and beyond the 1,144 delegates he needs thanks to the Texas primary today. It's a big state with 155 delegates on offer.

Yippee! Romney wins the nomination! 

More interesting, as ABC News reports, is the primary to determine the Republican Senate nominee to fill the seat being vacated by Kay Bailey Hutchinson, who is retiring. The race is between David Dewhurst, the state's lieutenant governor, and Ted Cruz, the former solicitor general.

Once again we have a candidate, Dewhurst, considered to be an "establishment" candidate, going up against Cruz, who appears to claim the Tea Party designation. The waters do get a bit muddied, though, as Sarah Palin and Jim Demint are with Cruz, while Mike Huckabee and Rick Perry, hardly moderates, are with Dewhurst.

In Texas you need 50 percent in the primary to avoid a runoff, which is, it appears, a threshold that may not be reached. But even if a runoff is required, Public Policy Polling is saying that Dewhurst is in good shape to win the nomination because most of the votes of the likely third place finisher, Tom Lepperts, are poised to go to Dewhurst.

Texas is a reliably red state, so the GOP nominee should have no problem winning the general. No Delaware or Nevada 2010 shenanigans here, and not even 2012 Indiana contortions are likely.

That's right. Texans are going to the polls to choose between red and marginally redder.

Okay, this isn't a very interesting post. Sorry.

(Cross-posted at Lippmann's Ghost.)