Mitt Romney is a yellow dog.

I’m not saying he’s a terrible human being with no backbone, but he certainly fits the classic definition of a yellow dog candidate.

Back in the 1920s, when the South strongly supported the Democratic Party, Democrats would say they would rather vote for a yellow dog than a Republican. Now the shoe is on the other foot and the Republicans have their own yellow dog.

We are witnessing the Republican Party in free fall. Party leaders are making outlandish statements about immigration and women’s rights, their presidential campaign has been defined by lies and deceit, and their nominee is an uncharismatic shyster who thinks of the country as a business.

So, how are they making this a close race?

Well, despite the party’s gaffes, the Republican National Committee and anti-Obama super PACs have raised nearly as much money as the incumbent Democrats, and they aren’t close to spending it all. In these crucial months leading up to the election, the RNC has over $200 million in their war chest, significantly more than the Democrats have on hand.

However, while many Republicans are looking to vote against President Obama in November, very few are actually looking forward to voting for Mitt Romney. Instead, the Republican nominee is simply the candidate judged by the establishment to have the best shot at beating a president they hate.

Seriously, what is there to like about Mitt Romney? He could serve as the clip art image of a generic white male.

Romney’s uninspiring acceptance speech at the Republican convention in Tampa was like watching a stray pet begging for scraps — he pandered to you when you knew he was getting food elsewhere. It was full of empty rhetoric and vague promises while being scant on actual details. His official stance seemed to be, “We’ll work out the details now that I’m the nominee.”

At this point, a candidate should be explaining their plans, not saving them for later, and when a candidate hides their planks, they shouldn’t gain the electorate’s trust.

To me, that’s the most unbelievable thing about Romney’s viability — he’s a terrible politician. The Republicans coined flip-flopping, but Romney has made his name as the greatest flip-flopper in American polity. The strongest example, of course, is that he’s running on repealing what is basically a nationwide version of his own health care plan.

As former President Bill Clinton said in his speech at the Democratic convention, “It takes some brass to attack a guy for doing what you did.”

Romney is simply the Republican Party’s anti-Obama. He’s the yellow dog. In their view, it’s either him or the other guy and the other guy just happens to be the first black, socialist, Muslim, foreign-born president in our history.

Of course, only one of those traits is actually true, but the Republicans can’t openly campaign against it.

In this era of political polarization, I see dualism between the parties. I see cooperation against condemnation, inclusiveness versus exclusiveness, truth opposed to lies, and as Mr. Clinton put it in his speech, “we’re in this together” rather than “you’re on your own.”

Frankly, I’d rather vote for a yellow dog running on the former platform than anyone running on the latter.