How Weak is the Republican Field?

Very, very weak according to Ezra Klein:

Does the 2012 Republican primary field feel a little…thin to anyone else?

In 2008, Republicans fielded five candidates who looked, at various points in the process, like plausible nominees and even plausible presidents: Mitt Romney, John McCain, Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson, and Mike Huckabee.

[…] Why have so many GOP heavyweights — think Haley Barbour, Mitch Daniels, Paul Ryan, Bobby Jindal and Chris Christie, to name just a few — sat this one out?

Clearly there’s something to this. But less than you might think. In the first place, I don’t think Haley Barbour, Mitch Daniels, Chris Christie and Paul Ryan sat this one out. They ran, they just didn’t make it to the primaries. The “Invisible Primary” is still a Primary. A number of things persuaded them, as they convinced Tim Pawlenty, to withdraw from the race. Mainly, of course, the realisations that they didn’t want it enough and weren’t likely to win.

Running for President is hard work (ask Rick Perry about that) and perhaps they weren’t ready to spend months living in cheap hotels in Iowa and New Hampshire, pretending that Iowans and Granite staters are the best Americans of them all.