One other point worth making, Yuval: Brooks jumps to specific weaknesses of Romney, such as his poor showing among young voters, without really tying those weaknesses to his overall thesis about the dead end of movement conservatism. Is Romney doing so poorly among young voters because he has chosen to ally himself with a dying movement, or because he had to flip-flop to do so? Or is it just that Romney’s numbers are lower among all groups that aren’t paying much attention to the race, and young people pay less attention than most? (The two best-known candidates, McCain and Giuliani, do best among young people in the poll Brooks cites.) For that matter, while doing poorly among young voters is a bad sign about the future, is it really crucial to win those votes to win in November? Bush got the first absolute majority in 16 years while losing the youth vote.

Of course, we should keep in mind that Brooks had only about 750 words. . .