Palin derangement

A couple of writers I respect have said something I’ve been thinking.

Gerard vanderLeun says it in his own inimitable style, but he’s got a point: excitement is one of the things a candidate needs.

What we’re being offered:

Newt Gingrich, who is not bad as a theoretician but you think Palin has family problems;

Mitt Romney, soporific speaker who looks like a men’s suit model and whose major good point is that, as inventor of Romneycare, he provided proof that the insurance-mandate model actually doesn’t work;

and Mike Huckabee, who governed as a social conservative and fiscal liberal, and who really agrees with Michelle Obama that the government should be doing something about our diets.

Professor Jacobson summed it up (h/t Glenn):

Let’s have a process focused on issues, and yes, as part of the process electability inevitably is going to be one of the issues. But let’s not undermine ourselves by telling Sarah Palin, or Tim Pawlenty, or Mitch Daniels, or Mitt Romney or anyone else that they are wasting our time by running because they cannot win a general election.

And let’s not insult their supporters with the same message. Remember, after the primaries the Lombardi Rule will take effect, and we are going to have to unite to defeat the billion-dollar candidate.