Peggy Noonan delivers a warning to the Republican presidential pack:

“The debate was full of fireworks about Iraq, about its essentials—the rightness of the endeavor, and what should rightly be done now. From the libertarian Ron Paul a blunt argument against the war: We never should have gone in and we should get out. ‘The people who say there’ll be a blood bath are the same ones who said it would be a cakewalk. . . . Why believe them?’ His foreign policy: ‘Mind our own business, bring our troops home, defend our country, defend our borders.’ After Mr. Paul spoke, it seemed half the room booed, but the other applauded. When a thousand Republicans are in a room and one man of the eight on the stage takes a sharply minority viewpoint on a dramatic issue and half the room seems to cheer him, something’s going on.

“Ron Paul’s support isn’t based on his persona, history or perceived power. What support he has comes because of his views. As he spoke, you could hear other candidates laughing in the background. They should stop giggling, and engage in a serious way.”

Those clowns will be laughing out of the other side of their mouths come election day, when the GOP ship sinks straight to the bottom. Noonan spoils her good advice, however, by praising Huckabee for his pious comeback: we can’t be “divided,” we have to be “united,” and “history will judge whether we were right to go in, but for now, ‘we’re there.’” Maybe the Huckster is the frontrunner, she muses, and “we just don’t know it.”

Yeah, sure, Peggy: he’s got the trailer-park vote, and the “fair tax” vote. All he needs now is $50 million, a $500 haircut, and a squadron of new speechwriters flown in from AEI, and before you know it, he’ll be the New McCain, zipping around the country in the Bromide Express, pontificating about how A Nation Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand, and wearing a stovepipe hat.