Ed Kilgore is unsurprised:
[N]o elaborate conspiracy theories are needed to explain the collapse of all the movement’s various champions. They wanted hard-core ideologues who scorned experience, conventional political skills, and any hint of sweet reasonableness, and that’s what they got: candidates likely to crumble under the glare of a national spotlight or be torn down for insufficient orthodoxy by the movement’s very supporters—or, in the case of most figures who have already risen and fallen during this election cycle, both.
The Dish 