So let's say you were super-rich

and you and your buddies controlled the money that controls the American electoral system.

And let's say you needed a way in 2012 to keep voters away from dangerous ideas like nationalizing health care and reining in routine clandestine government snooping on citizens.

What would you do?

One really effective way would be to enable a procession of radical rightie presidential challengers, including a bona-fide religious fascist who wants to criminalize contraception, to shift the entire campaign debate so far to the right that the incumbent president – a guy who supports assassination of U.S. citizens and who has used the Espionage Act to punish government whistleblowers more than all other presidents combined – can pose himself as a centrist.

Pretty nifty. If you wanted to guarantee that whoever is elected in 2012 would be much friendlier to a corporate security state than the wishes voters express in polls, this scheme would be a brilliant way to accomplish that.

Just saying.