Two recent articles present opposite polarities on who might win the Republican nomination for president. Ross Douthat wrote in the New York Times a few days ago that Mitt Romney is the inevitable nominee, and what happens between now and his coronation is essentially just a circus:

“…when you have eliminated the impossible, as Sherlock Holmes told Watson, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. This rule holds for presidential contests as well as for whodunits: Romney is improbable, but his rivals are impossible, and so he will be the nominee.”

Sounds logical to me. But therein may lie the rub. Logic and reason aren’t exactly at the height of fashion these days. For the opposite view, Walter Shapiro writes in The New Republic that this just might be the year when a Herman Cain can pull it off:

“Aiding Cain—and potentially defying past election cycles—is the fact that Republican voters are highly skeptical of the media: 72 percent of conservative Republicans and 62 percent of all Republicans believe that there is “a lot” of bias in news coverage, according to a national survey by the Pew Research Center. Anger at elected officials is the new normal. It is stunning that seven out of eight voters disapprove of the way that Congress is doing its job. Adding to this mixture is the fact that Republican voters—judging from every poll in this political season—would prefer not to nominate Mitt Romney. But the Anybody But Romney forces keep struggling with that ancient rule of politics and boxing: You can’t beat somebody with nobody.”

Let the games begin!