We have assumed though the entire year that the economy will dominate the election, and while it almost certainly will be a part of every debate and every day’s news cycle, the unbroken chain of ominous developments abroad should lend the proceedings in Iowa and New Hampshire a deep seriousness. The country simply cannot afford another four years of a feckless, absentee presidency built on Alinskyite economic absurdities at home and appeasement abroad.

Which is why when Jim Geraghty, National Review’s highly respected political reporter, expresses doubt about Newt’s past positions, or Mark Steyn does the same on my show or Rush’s, or Charles Krauthammer voices concern over Newt’s “deological heresies,” and the fact that over a long career Newt’s “had a lot of ideas, and some of them are rather heretical,” then you have three of the most influential conservative commentators in the country saying essentially the same, important thing which has to be part of the debate over the next month: Electability will be an issue fro Newt…

“And when I look at some of the things he’s managed to sign onto over the last fifteen years, I find that very worrying,” Steyn offered, before doubling down: “The idea of Newt as the Republican presidential candidate is, I have to say, extremely dismaying to me.”