It was a weak field, which should be instructive for 2012.
We need more than the weak-gruel candidates we had then. Remember when conservatives’ hopes were set on Fred and then Fred turned out to be just another Establishment guy helping McCain? That’s what we’ve got to watch out for, channeling all conservative hope on someone who turned out to be both more rhetoric than action and an inside party backscratcher. If all our eggs are going in the Palin basket—and so far she’s the best we’ve got—then she’d best be worthy of it.
Fred had to be literally DRAGGED into the race and he wasn’t prepared, he didn’t have an organized campaign and he didn’t have the proverbial “fire in the belly.” The Huckster swooped-in when he spotted an opening and Romney was history after Iowa and the Huckster was history after NH. It was McCain all the way and SC and then FL sealed it.
The first four primary states can do the same again. They suck, especially the first two.