The theme song for conservatives over the last 30 years is “Your Cheatin’ Heart.” If any of the republicans we elected had acted right and voted right we wouldn’t be in the mess. But no, like Newt, they pursued the fashionable over reality.

Not letting Romney off the hook — same deal with carbon trading, health care and abortion. I’m sure he believes what he is saying when he says it, but who knows when he’ll have another ephiphany on something like he did with abortion.

Pundits and analysts who have been paying much closer attention remember that Gingrich tarnished his leadership of the House from the beginning with running his mouth constantly from the moment the 1994 elections thrust him into a leadership role. He went up against Clinton in the government shutdown and got his rear handed to him. He led the impeachment effort against Clinton for lying under oath about his affair with Monica Lewinsky while engaging in his own extra-marital affair. He was forced to resign as his own Republican allies got tired of him. He has since been on an effort to build a career as a self-important lobbyist-in-all-but-name while cozying up to such liberals as Nancy Pelosi, John Kerry, and Al Sharpton.

And while doing all of that he keeps talking about himself as “world historical transformational figure”. Who, other than Barack Obama, talks that way about himself? Does that sort of self-grandiosity appeal to anyone but himself?

Mmm hmm.

I support Perry. I plan to vote for him. He is the proven effective executive which our nation needs: this would be a powerful campaign weapon against Pres. Obama. I am impressed with the way Rick Perry is growing, both as a candidate and as a debate participant. I appreciate your courage in publicly supporting him, even when it is unpopular to do so.

I find most of the purported campaign-killing moments to be overblown. As Perry (among others) has pointed out, there’s nothing in the job of President that parallels a debate performance.

If we were to put these candidates to an IQ test, I expect they’re all above average. Cain’s rocket scientry would put him atop the math portions, while Newt’s mental encyclopedia wouldn’t help since IQ is not memorization. Perry flew jets, which requires math, but doesn’t require one be a genius. Dr. Paul is an M.D., and that suggests he has a mental encyclopedia of his own, but can’t show it off in debates. Bachmann, Huntsman and Romney have the education to suggest good scores on the language portions.

But does that matter so much? Do we need to elect Albert Speer, or George Washington?

Returning the country to the shape it was in when Bush left office would be an improvement, but is that something to aim for? Don’t we want a nation more like Bush promised in 2000 than the one he left us in 2008? We can get more than just a defeat of Obama. We can pick a candidate with some charisma and some coattails to improve margins in Congress and around the Statehouses.

Or we you can settle for Romney/Gingrich.