All three PMs did about as well as anyone could in the circumstances, and all three, so far as one can see, are doomed.
His capacity to win some of his severest critics round, and persuade them of his “greatness of soul”, helps explain his success.
The former Prime Minister also failed to grasp that Merkel was not going to do anything very much for him.
The Prime Minister’s interview yesterday was a reminder of the fact.
But Samantha Cameron and Marina Wheeler have proved less forthcoming than Rachel Johnson and Sarah Vine.
So we are back at the Palace of Varieties with far more MPs than expected – and relatively few casualties.
Farage, Sturgeon, Miliband, Bennett and Cameron visit their local polling stations.
While other party leaders’ spouses are paraded round for a curious public, Kirsten Farage keeps out of the limelight. Good on her.
On the day David Cameron visited Belfast, Bhogal tried to persuade people in Banbridge that it is possible to move beyond ancient quarrels.
The Prime Minister and his wife reminisce about raising their own children during a meeting with a young family.
The Prime Minister raised Tory morale by demonstrating his formidable abilities as a campaigner, and by showing that he will not behave like a Crosby-controlled robot.
The barons who created Magna Carta would be shocked by the rhetoric modern politicians deploy and the powers HMRC now wields.
It’s time that Ministers stopped talking about obesity and started instead using the public health levers that remain under their control to deliver action and results.
A measure that until recently seemed intolerable now looks likely to be adopted within a few years.
We need to renew that belief, that self-belief, and that optimism – about people, about society, about freedom and about human life – more than ever.