This turned out not to be Steve Forbes's election cycle. The indefatigable campaigner for flat taxes, medical savings accounts, and many other sensible conservative reforms pulled out of the race for the Republican nomination last week. Maybe, if he's not too sick of the grind, he will now consider the suggestion of many well-wishers that he turn his sights to his home state of New Jersey, which still lacks a serious Republican candidate for the Senate seat being vacated by Democrat Frank Lautenberg.
As David Frum argued in these pages last September, "Since World War II, there have been only four national conservative leaders: Taft, Goldwater, Reagan, and Gingrich. All four were practicing politicians and owed their leadership in some significant part to their political success. . . .
"There's no disgrace in testing the water and drawing back if it's too cold. Reagan weighed and rejected a presidential run in 1968, and it didn't seem to do his career any harm. On the contrary, it's an unwillingness to run for anything other than the big prize that kills a would-be president's prospects."