I know it’s early and the roster of potential Republican nominees for the 2016 presidential race is hardly set.  But I’m already fed up with pundits and party operatives telling me what I think of the candidates, as if they had performed a Vulcan mind meld with the conservative grassroots and GOP base (which I will use interchangeably to include local GOP boots on the ground, social conservatives, and Tea Partiers).  The punditocracy might occasionally glance at a few e-mails their assistants have sorted through, but mostly, they converse among themselves and read one another’s articles, and, rather than listening intently to the input from this varied and complex group of conservatives, they often project their perceptions onto the base.  They might chat briefly with some folks at book signings or speeches, and their prognostications might occasionally square with the base, but not this time.  To dig into the current thinking of the base...(Read Full Article)