Here’s what the Republicans should do for their best shot at winning the 2012 election: Add Mitt Romney and Rick Perry together, and divide them by two. Then they’d have “Mick,” their dream of a candidate. If, in 2008, the composite ideal was divided or four (or in three) upon parts of the legacy — social conservative Mike Huckabee, fiscal conservative Romney, and defense/war-on-terror hawks McCain and Giuliani — the field in 2012 is split not on policy, but on effect and persona.

On policy, the two seem to think the same things, but who they are and how they would do them remain very different: Mitt is the head and Rick is the heart; Mitt is Al Gore, and Rick is Bill Clinton; Mitt is Clean Gene, and Rick is Robert F. Kennedy; Mitt is Ashley Wilkes, and Rick is Rhett Butler. (Who would be Scarlett O’Hara remains to be seen.)