August 11, 2011: The first real stage of the campaign: when the candidates are required to eat food on a stick on camera at the Iowa State Fair. Mitt Romney is eating a porkchop on a stick.

(Photo via Associated Press.)

August 12, 2011: Michele Bachmann goes through the same ritual, but with a corndog.

(Photo via Reuters.)

August 15, 2011: Rick Perry's turn with a corndog.

As well as hardboiled eggs on a stick (ew).

(Photos via Associated Press.)

October 18, 2011: There were very many primary debates. Here, Romney gets touchy-feely with Perry in Las Vegas.

(Photo via Associated Press.)

November 8, 2011: In a Scottsdale, Arizona, press conference, Herman Cain explains he never sexually harassed anyone. He just told this one lady she was the same height as his wife, which normal people do all the time in casual conversation.

(Photo via Reuters.)

November 9, 2011: In the middle of Rick Perry's oops moment, Ron Paul is no help, suggesting it's not three government agencies that should be eliminated, but five.

(Photo via Associated Press.)

It was not Perry's best outing. He also did the butter churn.

(Photo via Reuters.)

November 14, 2011: In an interview with the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel editorial board, Cain seemed unable to remember what President Obama's position on Libya was, so he could oppose it.

(Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel video still.)

December 28, 2011: Callista Gingrich meets people working at the Southbridge Mall in Mason City, Iowa, and is surrounded by disembodied hands.

(Photo via Reuters.)

January 8, 2012: Newt Gingrich is so proud of Rick Perry when he can remember three things at the Concord, New Hampshire debate, one of the 23 Republican primary debates.

(Photo via Reuters.)

January 21: Gingrich works the drive-thru window at a Chick-fil-A in Anderson, South Carolina.

(Photo via Reuters.)

January 30: Romney, whose campaign didn't always get along well with the press, tries to make nice with reporters on the campaign plane by distributing snacks.

(Photo via Reuters.)

February 2: Romney looks so comfortable getting close to Trump during Trump's endorsement in Las Vegas. (As in, not at all comfortable.)

(Photos via Associated Press.)

March 3: Ann Romney's love of horses is perfectly captured as she passes by a mounted policeman while leaving a rally at Montgomery Inn Restaurant in Cincinnati.

(Photo via Reuters.)

March 6: Gingrich campaigns in front of space craft in Huntsville, Alabama. He will not apologize for his pro-moon colony position, which was ultimately his undoing.

(Photo via Associated Press.)

March 24: Santorum rocks a bowling alley in Sheboygan, Wisconsin.

(Photo via Associated Press.)

May 3: On this day, Mitt Romney tolerated Michele Bachmann for the last time, as she endorsed him.

(Photo via Reuters.)

July 2: Ann and Romney ride a jet ski on Lake Winnipesaukee while at their vacation home in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire.