IN FLORIDA, an epidemic of Mitt-Mania. “Attention young conservatives: Your grandma loves Mitt Romney. The phenomenal shift in the polls here in the Sunshine State — which has provoked much commentary and analysis about ‘strategy’ and ‘messaging’ — may in fact be little more complicated than that. And the massive crowd that turned out in downtown Naples today to hear and see Mitt was certainly evidence of how real Romney’s Florida surge is.”

Plus this: “If you set aside mere politics long enough to see the two Florida frontrunners as the average Republican voter sees them, it is hard to miss the contrast between Mitt — the tall, lean multimillionaire entrepreneur with dark hair and chiseled features — and Newt, the pudgy intellectual. Maybe you don’t judge presidential candidates by such standards, but it makes a lot of difference to Republican grandmas, and there are lots of Republican grandmas in Florida.”