. . . what will he do?

Yes, it's true, the least surprising political news in the Commonwealth this year has finally broken, or half of it, anyway. Mitt Romney announced this afternoon that he will not seek reelection for a second term as Mass. governor. He declined, however, to go ahead and declare that he will run for President, saying instead that because he's accomplished all he set out to do, there's no point in sticking around. (So, in other words, by the end of next year, Massachusetts will be perfect!) He also said, puzzlingly, that he had promised to serve a full term and that he had "done that so far." (True, but . . . ) Whether Romney has, in fact, realized all his goals, is subject to some debate, but it will now be a question for the rest of the country as he tries to sell himself beyond our borders. Expect a lot of talk about his prowess as a "no-nonsense manager" and not too much mention (by Mitt, anyway) of those issues that get poor people to vote against their economic interests core Republican ideals like hating faggots supporting family values, opposing abortion and contraception, and the like. So Romney is now moving on to bigger and better things, like so many Mass. governors before him, and we can focus on who will next occupy his office. But perhaps we haven't seen the last of old Mitt: If Romney fever doesn't sweep the nation as fast as he'd like, he could go back to his old company, Bain Capital, and run their new acquisition, Dunkin' Donuts. [This is the part where, if we were more clever, we'd close out this post with a pithy sentence alluding first to the fact that Romney, as Governor, has advocated penalizing individuals who don't buy health insurance while resisting moves to force employers to provide insurance, and second, that Dunkin' Donuts has more employees getting healthcare from the state than any other company.]

Photo: Mitt Romney catches the train - outbound, presumably.