What if Christine O'Donnel Loses?

The current mood on the right is interesting; it's a sort of eager triumphalism. Everybody expects 2010 to be very good for Republicans, but one wonders what the takeaway will be if more mainstream republicans win while people like Christin O'Donnel lose.

But what do I know? According to David Limbaugh's latest article, I'm an extremist.

But Christine O'Donnell isn't really the issue here. The more interesting and relevant stories arising out of her primary victory are: 1) the liberals' efforts to paint her -- along with other mainstream conservatives, including the entire tea party movement -- as extreme and, frankly, a bit wacko when the real extremism resides in the Democratic Party . . .

We are back in Clinton territory in a way; Clinton was described as an extremist for his 8 years as well; even though he was pretty moderate all the way around, and sold out the liberal base repeatedly. But going back to my main theme, what happens if O'Donnel loses?

The tea partiers are not splintering or otherwise threatening the Republican Party; they are making it more accountable, more conservative and more effective. It can no longer be said that incumbents in either party are shoo-ins. We're witnessing the healthiest paradigm shift in modern politics, and it is an extremely positive development.

What happens is that Conservatives continue to fool themselves about the Conservative nature of this nation. If O'Donnel loses, Limbaugh et al won't take that as a lesson not to put up extremist and shakey candidates just because they are more strictly conservative. They never do.