We covered a fair amount of ground over the weekend. Here’s a quick overview of what you may have missed
On Sunday, we talked about:
* By historical standards, the 2012 Republican presidential field is pretty awful. Why is that?
* About a year ago, former senator and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Danforth (R) said his party is “beyond redemption” is Sen. Dick Lugar (R-Ind.) faces a serious primary challenger. Well, guess what?
* Rep. Steve Pearce (R-N.M.) believes “kooks” are “running Washington.” As proof, he argued, “People are declaring that we descended from apes. Now, I know that’s not true.”
* About 17 years ago, Herman Cain rallied the private sector to kill the Clinton health care plan. The results were awful for small businesses.
* Joe Nocera would have us believe that Democrats are responsible for the breakdowns in American politics because they rejected Robert Bork’s nomination 24 years ago. It’s hard to overstate how misguided this argument is.
* Rick Perry was able to talk about abortion and religion in Iowa on Saturday night. For the flailing governor, that’s put him back in his comfort zone.
And on Saturday, we talked about:
* For decades, the conventional wisdom has said the Republican Party dominated on national security and military policy. Isn’t it time to revise and correct those assumptions?
* President Obama can better navigate foreign policy than domestic policy because it’s harder for Congress to screw up the former. That’s not to make the case against checks and balances.
* Herman Cain is scrambling to convince the right he’s a strong opponent of abortion rights. That’s proving to be quite difficult.
* House Majority Leader Eric Cantor scheduled a speech on economic inequalities, then canceled, then lied about why he canceled. It’s just as well — the speech was ridiculous anyway.
* John Bryson was confirmed this week as the Commerce Secretary. The process that led up to his confirmation is a reminder of a broken political system.
* In “This Week in God,” we covered, among other things, why it matters what political candidates would do, not necessarily whether religious motivations shape those actions.
* Republican opposition to the end of the war in Iraq is surprisingly tone-deaf.
