The first debate of the 2012 U.S. election cycle revealed six modest-sized candidates for a huge office, and one (Mitt Romney) who has enough practice to look almost big enough for the job. Collectively mouthing the brain-dead anti-statism that passes for conventional wisdom in the GOP these days, they managed to blame the economic catastrophe on President Obama, which is kind of like arresting the one teller who didn't get shot during the bank heist.
It would be comforting at least to find one Republican hopeful who can be both (a) thoughtful and (b) electable, but little thought or comfort was on offer. Newt Gingrich, of all people, served as the intellectual conscience of the crowd, chiding opponents for simplistic promises and even scolding them for divisive and phony positions on the illegal immigration issue. But he's running for another job on TV now, not President.
The only electable one - Romney (whose brand of "courage" is not reversing himself on his own signature achievements) stood out like Laurence Fishburn in a Jim Carey movie: he's in it for the payday, not the art - and it's torture. The best he could do was look paternally bemused, and you have to wonder why the guy couldn't find another hobby to spend his millions on.
But among the dwarves the tiniest one stood out: namely Rep. Bachman of Minnesota. Here we see the most spookily self-referential demagogue to surface since, well, her political earth mother, Sarah Palin. But unlike Palin's gratingly ignorant shtick (which seems so authentic, because she really is gratingly ignorant), Ms. Bachman coats herself in a gloss of professionalism ("I'm a tax lawyer") sainthood ("I've fostered 23 children") and right wing extremism (everything else she says). This, my friends, is the Republican to watch and worry about, because she's not likely to shoot herself in the foot.
