In today’s Republican Party, the truth shall set you down, and out.
By any normal measure, 2012 should be a political year in which Republicans are fairly flocking to run for president. The economy remains weaker than at any time since the 1930s. Corporate profits have recovered smartly, but the economic indices that measure the lives of ordinary Americans — unemployment rates, wage levels, consumer confidence — remain obdurately dismal. President Barack Obama has not laid out any plausible new plans to extend the recovery from Wall Street to Main Street. When Election Day rolls around next November, unemployment is almost certain to be higher than the level at which incumbent presidents can usually win re-election.
In September, 2009 Atlantic Monthly named 
