The bookies certainly think it is. You can put a dollar to win a cent on Mitt Romney with most of them and the Crikey Election Indicator puts the probability of a Romney victory at nearly 98%.

And Romney is strongly favoured as well on the next three occasions that Republicans get to have a say about who will be their candidate to take on Barack Obama. If the Indicator is any kind of guide this Republican selection process will soon be a boring procession.

Overall the Crikey Indicator assesses the chances:

What I find intriguing is that the opinion polls, as summarised on the Real Clear Politics site, do not show anything like the support for Romney among Republican voters as the market expects to finally happen.

That must be a good sign for Barack Obama if Romney is finally chosen. At the moment the Crikey Indicator has Obama a slight favourite.