Establishment "firewall" will hand the Crown Prince John Ellis the 2016 GOP nomination

Tomorrow, my (neocon) Prince will come.

South Carolina is the state South Carolinian Wilbur Cash had in mind when he developed the idea of "Southern deference" in his classic work "Mind of the South."  All men must submit to God, and each man must submit to his socio-economic "betters." Only once, in 2012, have South Carolina Republican primary voters refused to defer to the GOP establishment's choice for them, and that was likely due to Mitt Romney's Mormanism, if one could successfully poll for honest results.  No self-respecting South Carolinian who has any sense of "honor" would admit to rebuking Romney because of his religion, and the false culture of graciousness makes knowing what's actually in the mind of the average Southerner sort of like trying to figure out the sexual history of a closeted Clemson frat boy.

Romney was an "outlier," though, and it is no great wonder that the coupon clipping and unearned income classes have relied on South Carolina in each presidential election since the emergence of the primary system to reliably promote their choice to victory in the party's nomination, and 2016 is shaping up to conform to a Southern's sense of historical determinism. White South Carolinians will rejoin at a chance to confirm another member of America's current pseudo-royal family. Just as neocon Senate Grand Dame Lindsey Graham will coast to victory over a multitude of tea party upstart challengers in a never closely contested primary, the latest Palmetto Poll shows the Crown Prince John Ellis Bush beating his closest Establishment alternative (Chris Christie) by a margin in excess of 2 to 1.  Bush has 22 percent to Christie's 10 percent, and everyone else is in single digits.

One word of note:  Mike Huckabee (who will not run) was not included in this poll.