Larry Sabato on Romney, from my quick state-of-the-race piece today:

“A presidential campaign, especially this one, is a long and winding road. He has the money, the basic skills, and the fundamental charisma to overcome his challenges.”…

Sabato on McCain & Giuliani:

While Sabato doesn’t think much of the Romney attack on McCain’s abortion record, he doesn’t think McCain should be sitting too comfortably either. “Abortion is certainly not the key to overcoming McCain — for Romney or anyone else,” Sabato says. “McCain’s vulnerabilities are his maverick status, his age, and positions on other issues (even an arcane one, campaign finance). A lot of Republicans just don’t trust McCain; they don’t think they know what he’ll actually do once in office. With all of Romney’s flip-flopping, maybe the same thing can be said for him, although Romney has that puppy-dog quality that emanates sincerity.”

Sabato cautions about Rudy:

“No one on earth knows whether he actually will. McCain still has problems, and Rudy still has problems — they all do. As far as Rudy goes, just wait until the negative TV ads and the mailers start. There’s enough there to sink an aircraft carrier, even the U.S.S. Rudy. Of course, if his opponents run incompetent campaigns, they can misfire their ammunition.”

Sabato on Gingrich:

“Everyone knows he’s the most intelligent candidate in the field,” Sabato states matter-of-factly. “He’s smart enough to understand that when everyone else is zigging and getting out there early and threatening to bore the public to death by next January, then you need to zag: enter late, have something new to say, appear fresh, and give all the turned-off partisans a ‘savior.’” Sabato adds: “I have no idea whether he’ll really do it. But he’s already resurrected his national image quite a bit with his strategy.”