Incidentally, Mitt Romney may be a joke, but he was actually the successful executive of a fairly large state. The health care plan he helped formulate, and pass into law, is a genuinely interesting foreign policy experiment, and his record as a fiscal manager is quite impressive. Mike Huckabee was a similarly successful executive, and a rather long-serving one. It’s not as if the Republican Party lacks for tested governors. They just decided to pick one who, two years ago, was effectively the principal of a large high school.

Ezra Klein is a former Prospect writer and current editor-in-chief at Vox. His work has appeared in the LA Times, The Guardian, The Washington Monthly, The New Republic, Slate, and The Columbia Journalism Review. He’s been a commentator on MSNBC, CNN, NPR, and more.