At CPAC last week we noticed Rick Perry saying the Republicans lost in 2012 because their nominee wasn’t conservative, which one must say was quite rich. And why was the nominee not a conservative? Perhaps because Perry failed.

He came into the primaries a governor of a large state, with an excellent record, a “big” personality, a reputation as a ferocious campaigner, and for some reason bombed quickly, leaving Mitt Romney the last sane man standing in a field of conservatives whose credentials were lacking and whose personalities verged on bizarre.