Not Far Enough Off His Rocker

Duncan Hunter may be the “hard-ass conservative” running for president, the New Republic’s Eve Fairbanks allows, but the congressman dubbed “Pat Buchanan with a smile” is simply too boring to fill the fringe niche. Sure, he wants a double fence on the Mexican border and to withhold abortion even from rape victims, but he’s got all the “ease and passion of a sex-ed teacher.”

On the electoral fringes, “the currency with which you buy status is outrage,” writes Fairbanks, but Hunter looks more like a sitcom grandpa than Howard Beale—even when proposing to turn national parks into hunting reserves for veterans. “Mild manner and good cheer” may work in the mainstream, but Hunter’s out at the edges—and without a freak flag. (More Duncan Hunter stories.)