All of punditry is now in the game of explaining what almost none of us saw coming in the Cantor race. But it seems pretty clear that one reason for the power of the immigration issue in the Cantor race was that the House leadership created the sense that it was desperate to do something on immigration — and therefore augmented the well-earned distrust of the political class on this issue — with its ill-considered immigration “principles.” It would have been better politics — and better substance — just to declare the Senate Gang of Eight bill flat-out dead, period, full-stop.