My column, from this morning’s Post:

IT looks like this year’s primaries have put “pander bears” on the endangered-species list.

Bay State Sen. Paul Tsongas coined the phrase in 1992 to describe his Democratic primary opponent, Bill Clinton. But it’s the Republican electorate that’s punishing the fakes and frauds this year.

Just look at the Iowa and New Hampshire contests. Throughout 2007, the conventional wisdom was that the GOP base would run riot over illegal immigration. The pitchforks were being sharpened, the torches lit - the GOP candidates would have to “out-Tancredo [Rep. Tom] Tancredo,” as the nativist firebrand himself put it at a debate in late November.

As I wrote about recently here, immigration didn’t turn out to be the issue it was cracked up to be. But a lot of other types of pandering have hurt the GOP candidates this cycle as well.