On Monday September 13th, 2010 Christine O'Donnell (R-DE) didn't have a chance to win the Republican primary for the Delaware Senate seat vacated by Vice President Joe Biden. But on Tuesday September 14th, Christine O'Donnell stood the world of American politics on its head. In a stunning upset O'Donnell beat her opponent, Representative Mike Castle (R-DE), by a 53% to 46% margin. Suddenly politics just didn't make sense, how could a far right, ex-television commentator beat a former Governor for the chance to run as the Republican nominee for a seat in the United States Senate? Overnight Christine O'Donnell became a national sensation with pundits from both sides of the aisle calling her victory an overall loss for the Republican Party. Yet these same people previously counted her out during the primary election, so the question becomes: Does Christine O'Donnell have enough magic left for just one more upset?
Keeping the Wave Going
While Christine O'Donnell was busy thanking her supporters and delivering her acceptance speech, the rest of the political world was also busy. With unnatural speed, especially in the context of the American politics, every pundit and politician became an expert on everything O'Donnell. (After writing this line I realized how perfect that would be if it was about Sarah Palin instead.) Suddenly Karl Rove (and company) knew everything about Christine's past and began calling her victory an unfortunate outcome. Initially the GOP announced that it would not funnel money into her campaign, even saying that Sarah Palin (R-AK) and Jim DeMint (R-SC) got her here and should take her the rest of the way. CNN also ran multiple stories claiming that the GOP's ambition to retake the Senate were now gone and portrayed the electorate in Delaware as being unintelligent and unfortunate.
Yet Christine O'Donnell has shown herself to be quite resilient. She has begun to emerge from the shell in which she had withdrew into from the nearly endless barrage of attacks. She has begun to hire a top notch campaign staff and a campaign lawyer to help her overcome the unwarranted suites from a vindictive watchdog group. She made light of a childish high school experience where she experimented with witch craft. She still remains anywhere between 11-15% behind in polls but she has overcome that large of a deficit before. With a little help from the GOP, the Tea Party, and from big names like Sarah Palin and Jim DeMint,Christine O'Donnell may once again perform enough magic to find herself being sworn in by her former opponent, Joe Biden, for the very seat he once held.
"I've got the Magic in me"
Can Christine O'Donnell actually overcome Chris Coons (D-DE), a man who once referred to himself as a "bearded Marxist'? Honestly I don't really know. All I know is that I counted her out before, thinking that she would fall to the more moderate, and seemingly more electable, Mike Castle. I mean look at it logistically: Mike Castle was a former governor of Delaware and a nine term U.S. Representative whereas Christine O'Donnell was a television personality who had previously run for this same Senate seat. Going into election day she was down in every poll until she suddenly stomped Rep. Castle, beating him by more than six percent of the vote. This time my attitude will be a little different, I no longer doubt her ability to win. This time I will not count her out until the last ballot has been counted and, as the Republican nominee, I will back her in the hopes that when she get's to the Senate she will be able to deliver for state of Delaware as well as the entire nation.
Later,
Cody
(Photo Courtesy of Rob Carr/ the Associated Press)
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