Thomas Sowell: Romney is not inevitable

Many people may be voting for Mitt Romney because of the view in some quarters that he is the inevitable Republican candidate for president of the United States, and the candidate with the best chance of beating Barack Obama, rather than because they actually prefer Romney to the other candidates.

Inevitability has a very unreliable track record. Within living memory, totalitarianism was considered to be “the wave of the future.” During the primary season, people should vote for whomever they prefer, on their own merits, not because pundits have pronounced them inevitable.

Regardless of what the polls or the pundits say about Mitt Romney’s chances of winning the Republican nomination, the conditions that made him the front-runner in the primaries are the direct opposite of the conditions for the general election.

The biggest single reason why Governor Romney is the front-runner is that he has had the overwhelming advantage in money spent and in “boots on the ground” running his campaign in states across the country.

Romney has outspent each of his rivals — and all of his rivals put together. His campaign organization has been operating for years, and it has put his name on the ballot everywhere, while neither Santorum nor Gingrich had a big enough organization to get on the ballot in an important state, Virginia.

Read more at National Review HERE.