Despite being the least naturally gifted politician nominated by a major party in a generation, Mitt Romney’s cosmic awkwardness is only a part of his problem. The GOP candidate’s biggest liabilities are a Republican predecessor who can’t be named, and a “Socialist Hottentot” opponent, as Stephen Colbert jokes, who’s largely a product of Rush Limbaugh’s fevered imagination.

Also of Glenn Beck’s and Ann Coulter’s, along with scores of talk radio shouters and the Fox News Channel’s handsomely coiffed imagineers. When it comes to President Obama, the most influential minds in the Republican Party have gone so far around the bend that there’s no coming back.