Blogger “Vox” raises the dread specter of the Dinkins Effect:

Another factor that should have been kept in mind is that the number of Democrats willing to vote against a half-black candidate like the Magic Negro was always going to be higher than the polls report when the vote takes place in private — like New Hampshire — than in public — like Iowa.

(The Dinkins Effect is named for New York City’s first black mayor David Dinkins, who won his 1989 mayoral camapign, but by strikingly less than the polls had predicted. There’s something about it in Freakonomics. The speculation was, that more people were willing to tell a voter they’d support a black candidate, than were actually willing to do so in the privacy of the voting booth.)

Vox also delivers the bad news to us fogey conservatives:

It’s also disappointing, though not the least bit surprising, to see that ten percent appears to be the ceiling on Republicans genuinely interested in smaller government. So be it.

I’m afraid that’s right. Subtract out those who want the handouts, those who want the Washington jobs, those who want to tell us how to live, and those who want everlasting war, and there’s not much left of small-government conservatism. Pity — it was a really cool idea.