Who says Christine O'Donnell can't win in Delaware? Most years, I'd agree with that but this is not most years. This is, as I told my wife the other day, the most interesting, and perhaps the most important, political year of my lifetime. Things gave changed. That's what the GOP establishment can't get through their thick heads. 2010 is not like any other year we've experienced; the pushback from ordinary America is real. Whether it is ultimately successful, i.e., whether we get real rollback and real reform in the way business is done in Washington, is still a long shot. But the point is, there's a chance right now.
The main reason I supported Ms. O'Donnell over the RINO Mike Castle is because of something that was pointed out earlier this week: if Mike Castle gives the GOP a 51-49 majority in the Senate, who becomes the most important man in the room? That's right, Mike Castle. And what kind of legislation is going to be passed when he's ready to stand with the Democrats half the time and is demanding watered-down policy the other half? If we get a majority let's use it for real reform. That won't happen with Mike Castle holding every piece of legislation hostage to his spineless agenda.
So, I'm one hundred percent behind the lovely Ms. O'Donnell. Unlike Karl Rove, the epitome of the Washington establishment, the guy behind Bush's "compassionate conservatism" nonsense. Now, I suppose it was fine before the election to talk about Ms. O'Donnell's electability, though even then I thought it unwise (remember Ronald Reagan's commandment, "thou not speak ill of other Republicans"). Some, for instance Charles Krauthammer, whom readers of this blog know I admire as much as any man in America, criticized the political wisdom of those who supported O'Donnell. I suppose that is fair game. But to go after her in the viscous personal way that Rover did after she's won the primary is inexcusable. Rove owes Ms. O'Donnell a personal and public apology. If she does lose in the general we'll never know much the damage inflicted upon her by Karl Rove and others like him did had to do with it.
But I think she has a good shot of winning. We heard the day before that she only had $24,000 to spend during the primary, as opposed to the Democrats $900,000+. Forty-eight hours later she has $1.4 million. And more is pouring in. Christine O'Donnell is a symbol for how strong the anti-establishment mood is in the country and, it seems to me, your view on her candidacy and her win on Tuesday pretty much is a divining rod on where you stand. As for me, she's my girl now. If she wins it will be important not only because it brings the GOP closer to a Senate majority but also because it will be an earthquake beneath feet of these milquetoast Republicans. Maybe then they'll begin to get a sense of what's going on outside the beltway.
Everyone is talking about the Buckley rule, Bill Buckley's famous dictum that he was always for the right-most electable candidate. These very same people seem to have forgotten Buckley's more famous maxim, the motto and purpose of the magazine he founded in 1955, 'to stand athwart history yelling STOP!' We've got a change to yell stop right now - let's not blow it because of internal squabbling. In 2010, Ms. O'Donnell can win, if everyone gets behind her.
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