2012 Presidential Election Thread

[Vampyr]

Great article, one point I thought I would draw out:

Mitt Romney won the nomination for the simple reason that every other contender was utterly beyond the pale of national acceptability

Why was every candidate so terrible? Normally I'd say it's because none of the really good candidates wanted to run against an incumbent, but I see you guys saying things like "they had a softball and whiffed." If it was truly that easy to oust the current president, why didn't "better" candidates step up?

I mean, c'mon. Santorum? Rick Perry? Those guys are joke fodder for the Daily Show, nothing more.