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One debater, former Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, is at heart a moderate conservative but desperately tried to bare his teeth to appeal to the Tea Partiers who rule the primaries. Another, Rick Santorum, a former United States senator from Pennsylvania, is much further to the right than the independents who control the general election. Herman Cain, the former chief executive of Godfather’s Pizza, seemed to be running for Motivational Speaker of the United States rather than president, and two libertarian candidates were tuned only to their customized ideological frequencies.

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Like a dark star, the Tea Party has pulled the entire Republican party rightward, and the vast distance between that star and the nation’s center has made it difficult to run for president. The slightest deviation calls down cosmic storms. When the sharp panel assembled by Fox News for the debate noted that Mr. Pawlenty had supported a cap-and-trade system in 2008 to limit greenhouse gases, there were gasps in the audience in Greenville, S.C. He practically sunk to his knees to apologize.

“I was wrong. It was a mistake,” he said. “I’m sorry.”

With the exception of the libertarians, the other candidates have had to trample over each other to stake out positions so tough-minded they often abandon common sense. Mr. Santorum defended his position that stopping “Obamacare” was more important than avoiding a federal default. Then he went a step further and said it was the most important issue facing the country, apparently writing off any of the 13.7 million people still unemployed.

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