Campaign Snapshot: Corporate Tea

Nice shot from the Republican debate this week mixing the Google logo, who know how many Republicans at Florida’s Orange County Convention Center, and the Tea boys at the tip of the spear. At this point in the political season, with the GOP campaign shaping up as Romney vs. the seven or so dwarves (Mitt fashioning himself as if sporting one of those three-cornered hats), 2012 is shaping up as the year conservatism gave way to farce.

More aligned in his business model with the type of corporate monolith hanging over the room than he is with those guys in the funny outfits running interference for the free market, though, another way to read this is that Romney is just riding out the preliminaries before elevating his own brand.

(photo: Chip Litherland for The New York Times.)