More on Mitt Romney and historic events

When Mitt Romney 60% of the voters in  New Hampshire's primary didn't vote for Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor declared, “Tonight we made history.” History, in this context, was manufactured because political wonks discovered that Romney is the first Republican non-incumbent presidential candidate to win nominating contests in both Iowa and New Hampshire.

No, my friends,  last Tuesday's "historic" moment is as historic as Al Bundy's four touchdowns in a high school football game. It's the worst kind of political geekery that passes for analysis, made even worse when raised up by a candidate on a national stage.

No, my friends, history was made with:

• the march on Selma to Montgomery in 1965


• the march on Washington in 1963


• the march on the Pentagon in 1968


• Juneteenth in 1865


• Nelson Mandela's walk from prison in 1990


• the ratification of the Bill of Rights in 1791


• the election of a black president in 2008

This history-is-waiting tidbit started showing up a couple of months ago. I haven't verified that Jim Geraghty's column in NRO, War-Gaming the GOP Early Contests, Six Weeks Out, is the very first mention, but it's among the earliest. The factoid gained momentum after Mitt's presumed eight-vote triumph in Iowa. It was held high by the candidate, much as a fifth-grader would raise a blue ribbon for the best bug collection.

All around the world, people are fighting and dying for the right to have a government of their choosing. Should we warn them that it's is what their future could be?

We, for varying values of we, are idiots.^™

More on politics and news

[Editor's Note: This is the latest installment of the More On series.]

As of December 1, 2011, there were approximately 614,000 registered Republicans in Iowa. Of those, slightly more than 100,000 Republicans attended and voted at the caucuses. The Three Amigos are each getting about one-quarter of the total. The punditocracy is trying to decide which one won with differences measured in the 100s or less.

None of the Iowa Republican delegates selected tonight are bound by the election results. If they were, the state might lose half of their delegates because the Republican National Committee says that we're starting the election season too early.

There were 137M registered voters in 2010, including 1.5M in Iowa.

Every major television, radio, cable, and newspaper service has been running special coverage of the Iowa results. Countless bloggers and twitterers are cloggging the InterTubes with their thoughts about the meaning of this vote that doesn't even rise to the level of a rounding error.

We, for varying values of we, are idiots.