Krauthammer: "Romney really is the frontrunner"

Yes. He. Is.

Charles Krauthammer last night on Fox 'Special Report'
Updated w/ video below post

via The Corner:

From last night’s “All-Stars.”
On prospective GOP candidates for 2012:

Romney really is the frontrunner. He has done himself well. He is a grown-up. He knows economics. He's trusted on that.

There is also a tradition among Republicans of nominating the next in line, as we did with George Bush, Sr. in 1988, Dole in '96, and McCain in '08, sort of the last grown-up who was left over from the last campaign.

And I think that Romney has done well. Look, he is the guy who is as clean as clean can get. You are not going to wake up in the morning and discover he is crying in Argentina. This is a solid guy and he's got a record.

Now, as to Palin, I agree entirely with what Mara said. She is—she has star power without any doubt. She has an extremely devoted following. But she is not a serious candidate for the presidency.

She had to go home and study and spend a lot of time on issues in which she was not adept last year, and she hasn't. She has to stop speaking in clichés and platitudes. It won't work.

It could work for eight weeks if you're the number two candidate, as she was last year. But even so, she got singed a lot in that campaign. You cannot sustain a campaign of platitudes and clichés over a year and a half if you're running for the presidency.

FYI: The Vanity Fair article Fred Barnes mentions: It Came From Wasilla
Also -- Chuck Todd talks with the author of the article Todd Purdum here