The need for new narratives - The Rick Perry problem

http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2011/09/rick-perrys-problems

With that said, Mr Perry's recent travails, real or exaggerated, are good for everyone. It's useful for voters to see how a candidate handles setbacks, because they are inevitable, and some politicians handle them more equably than others. We haven't seen Mr Perry face a serious threat to his political fortunes in more than ten years, so it will be instructive if at some point during the campaign it looks like he's losing everything. And if Mr Perry does implode entirely, Republicans should be glad that he ran at all: in running and losing Mr Perry would have handed Mr Romney his first credible national knockout. That would let Mr Romney enter the general election as a nominee who had actually won the nomination, not one who had stumbled into it despite himself.

The only narrative I see is the John Birch Society versus the Chamber of Commerce. Who wins and how they win will tell you the state of the Republican party for the next four years.