After lamenting that "pundits are trying to will a 'sane' GOP field into existence," Slate's David Weigel goes on to ask, "To what extent is this a 'crazier' field than the GOP's had before...?"
His answer:
There's a lot of precedent for Iowa or New Hampshire voters elevating someone that isn't electable -- Alan Keyes in Iowa in 2000, Pat Buchanan in New Hampshire in 1996, Pat Robertson in Iowa in 1988. But there hasn't been a year quite like 2010, when the Republican base had multiple choices between George Will-approved candidates and hard-liners, and chose the hard-liners.
The unnoted exception, of course, was 1964, which was the disastrous germination of all the craziness that flowers before us today.