The American Spectator : The Other Delaware Candidate

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The Other Delaware Candidate

By R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. on 9.23.10 @ 6:08AM

My guess is that he's still a Marxist.

WASHINGTON -- Christine O'Donnell, the Tea Party-supported Republican candidate for Senate in Delaware, has no secrets. The press has even gone back to her high school years and found that she "dabbled" in witchcraft." But now Jeffrey Lord of The American Spectator has been scrutinizing her opponent, Democratic candidate Chris Coons. Lord did not have to go back to Coons' high school days. He found quite a lot in Coons' infatuation with Marxism, starting in college. Coons found Marx about the time that large numbers of Marxist pols behind the Iron Curtain gave up him up. By the 1990s even jailers and torturers were forsaking old Karl, but not Coons.

Now if you read about Coons in the New York Times or the Washington Post you will not find anything particularly diverting about him. He began college as a young Republican and ended as a young Democrat. As the Post writes in profiling him, he "spent time in South Africa and Kenya doing relief work." The Times never mentions Coons' African sojourn but only talks about his later work with the homeless, the Investor Responsibility Center, and the "I Have a Dream" Foundation." Apparently, he has been a goody-goody, but in the end, a bore.

Yet Lord went back further. He found that before Coons became the Democratic opponent of O'Donnell he was profiled in early May in Politico. In that profile Politico reports that as a 21-year-old about to graduate from Amherst he wrote a piece in the college newspaper that was titled "Chris Coons: The Making of a Bearded Marxist." Apparently there was more to that trip to Africa than he would like voters to recall or than the Post chronicled.

Coons reported in the student newspaper that his trip to Africa was what we now call a transformative experience. "[I]t is only too easy to return from Africa glad to be American and smugly thankful for our wealth and freedom" Politico quotes the returning student. "Instead, Amherst had taught me to question, so in turn I questioned Amherst and America." The groundwork for this questioning began before he left for Africa, during a course in cultural anthropology that "undermined the accepted value of progress and the cultural superiority of the West." A course on the Vietnam War also caused him to "suspect...that the ideal of America as a 'beacon of freedom and justice, providing hope for the world' was not exactly based in reality."

Then came his trip to Kenya. "I became friends with a very wealthy businessman and his family and heard them reiterate the same beliefs held by many Americans: the poor are poor because they are lazy, slovenly, uneducated," young Coons wrote. "I realize that Kenya and America are very different, but experiences like this warned me that my own favorite beliefs in the miracles of free enterprise and the boundless opportunities to be had in America were largely untrue." He found a moral equivalence between Kenya and the United States and became a "Bearded Marxist."

My guess is that he is still a Marxist. Certainly he shows no scruples about keeping his hands off other people's property. As county executive of New Castle County, Coons promised voters he would keep taxes down. Once elected, he raised property taxes by 5% in 2006, by 17.5% in 2007, and by 25% in 2009. He loves taxes. Lord tells us he has proposed to raise hotel taxes, paramedic taxes, and something heretofore unheard of. Lord tells us that Coons has a proposal to raise taxes on 911 calls. Lord discovered that by reading Byron York's report in the Washington Examiner.

I hope that both York and Lord will continue to review Coons' record. The entire mainstream press is at work on O'Donnell and they have Bill Maher the funnyman on their side. He had her on his comedy show in the 1990s, and the two clowned around together. Now Maher is calling her indiscreet -- but what about him?

Coons apparently did not have to appear on a clown's show to be indiscreet. He did it in college and in his later work as a good-goody bore. Just how radical was he? Stay tuned. Lord is on the case, and he has the ear of Sean Hannity and Mark Levin. They are broadcasting Lord's findings to an ever wider audience. Maybe the race for the open Senate seat in Delaware has just begun, and it is fitting that it is Vice President Joe Biden's seat. At any rate, mainstream America is no longer dependent on mainstream media for the news. There is Lord and York and Hannity and Levin. What will they come up with next?

About the Author

R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. is the founder and editor in chief of The American Spectator. He is the author of the forthcoming The Death of Liberalism, published by Thomas Nelson Inc. His previous books include the New York Times bestseller Boy Clinton: the Political Biography; The Impeachment of William Jefferson Clinton; The Liberal Crack-Up; The Conservative Crack-Up; Public Nuisances; The Future that Doesn't Work: Social Democracy's Failure in Britain; Madame Hillary: The Dark Road to the White House; The Clinton Crack-Up; and After the Hangover: The Conservatives' Road to Recovery.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (56) | Leave a comment

Tim*| 9.23.10 @ 6:41AM

Coons is a TAXER .

Delaware Voters want JOBS not TAXES .

The Tea Party Rebellion Escalates .

Rise Up !

Appleby| 9.23.10 @ 6:52AM

I wonder which phobia the liberals will say we are suffering from if we shun Marxists?

JF| 9.23.10 @ 3:11PM

Taxophobia - and it's catching!

mzk1| 9.23.10 @ 3:30PM

They've already convinced everyone that anti-Communism is a phobia. That's what we have to say Marxist instead.

The truth is the Communists and Nazis ought to be equally ostracised.

(And if you think I'm being insensitive to the holocaust, I suggest you look up what the Nazis did to the Jews of Kosov, my great-grandfather's birthplace. I don't expect to find any relatives back there.)

D| 9.23.10 @ 7:06AM

Coons has raised taxes here everytime he could, whihc was not as many times as he would have liked. He came out full-court press yesterday saying he was a "clean-shaven capitalist," but his insistence only reinforced the lie. Actions, not words, are what you need to believe.

youtellme| 9.23.10 @ 7:42AM

What is it about Leftism that engenders such radical dishonesty? Look at President Obama. The only thing that is honest and true about Barack Hussein Obama is the color of his skin. By his words and deeds Mr. Obama has proven that the content of his character is "...full of all uncleanness and dead men's bones." Barack Hussein Obama is the living embodiment of a lie.

Tom Osterman| 9.23.10 @ 10:01AM

It's simple: when you're trying to foist socialism, with its overall impoverishment and police-state governing, on a gullible public, you have to play it cagey.

TR| 9.23.10 @ 11:12AM

If you have read the Communist Manifesto, you would understand that obfuscation is a necessary part of enacting your plans. You cannot let the masses know where you are taking them, as they would resist and rebel. So you lie, deceive, and move them in small steps toward your ultimate goal of complete control of those idiot unwashed people so they can be told what to do by you and your superior elite vision.

Obama and his mentors, his cabinet full of marxists, his plethora of czars that are radical 60s revolutionaries, must talk smoothly, saying what they think you want to hear, all the while plotting behind the scenes to RULE you, not lead you. He presents a clear and present threat to the Republic and We The People must remain on guard.

The best solution: DO not vote for any, not one single democrat. I don't care how minor the position. Every democrat evolves into a marxist when exposed to the corruption of their party's bosses. Case in point is Pinky Reid. When I was a teenager he was the Lt Gov of NV. He was a reasonable middle of the road, almost could have been called conservative politician. Then he ran for congress, and he ran as "independent - like Nevada" and won handily (I voted for him too). Then he ran for Senate, and during the Reagan admin. he constantly said how he supported Reagan. Then the corruption started setting in. He evolved into the complete and utter marxist he is today.

So don't vote for a ANY democrats. They are unprincipled and WILL become marxists.

Victory in 2010 and wipe them off the map completely in 2012.

Trish| 9.23.10 @ 4:13PM

Bravo. I add that it takes a whole lot of lyin to get the frog to jump into the boiling pot of water. It takes a whole lot of lying to get the slave to lock her own chains. BTW, it takes a whole lot of lyin to get thoughtful women to see sharia with its burqua as a begign cultural statement. Of course the left and their buddies have to lie. Goebbles was correct.

Trish| 9.23.10 @ 4:14PM

'Benign'...

scythe| 9.24.10 @ 11:35AM

Thorough and insightful comments. Never vote for a Demorat again. As you said - not even for Town Clerk.

scythe| 9.24.10 @ 11:35AM

Thorough and insightful comments. Never vote for a Demorat again. As you said - not even for Town Clerk.

hoohoohogatz| 9.23.10 @ 4:21PM

The Obamination is even dishonest about his ancestry: he is an ersatz African. He genuflects not before the gods of his ancestors, the Christian deity, or even the Muslim's Allah - he is on his knees to the New Idol, the state. Time for some iconoclasm!

Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 9.23.10 @ 7:45AM

Thanks to the witchcraft of the main stream media most Delaware citizens will never find out about Coon's voodoo economics.

Anthony| 9.23.10 @ 2:21PM

Well put Bill. Christine O'Donnell is Griffendor; the MSM are Slytherin.
O'Donnell will pull this rabbit out of her hat.Then she can turn Obozo into a golf pro.

youtellme| 9.23.10 @ 7:49AM

BTW:
Here is a picture of Coons and Obama yukkin it up:
http://www2.nccde.org/Executiv.....ck_jpg.jpg

coal carrier| 9.23.10 @ 8:07AM

If this guy looses in Delaware, Obama can add him to his list of Marxists czars in the Oval Office. He can be the Witchcraft czar.

davelnaf| 9.23.10 @ 8:15AM

According to Obama, Coons, and assorted Marxists in and out of government because America isn’t perfect that means our country is like any other, as in America is automatically reduced to the lowest common denominator among nations. This seems to be the intellectual Holy Grail of Marxism.

The big problem with the Democratic Party Brand is that an ever larger number of voters have begun to associate it with people like Obama and Coons.

Tyler| 9.23.10 @ 12:52PM

You haven't gone far enough in your understanding. The Holy Grail of Marxism is not that America is like any other- it is that America is worse than any other because it became the greatest nation by knocking everyone else down. Marxism, Liberation Theology, Social Justice, etc. are all the same: Victim and Oppressor. That is the core belief of all these revolutionaries. That is what they use to whip people into a frenzy: class warfare. "Those bad people over there took all your stuff. So put us in charge and we'll get it all back for you." It's all a game to these people and a means of control.

The Bishop| 9.23.10 @ 8:28AM

Harry (I-Don't-Have-Much-Time-Left) Reid has called Coons "my pet." What more does one need to know? It's long past time for a national electoral enema.

Tom| 9.23.10 @ 8:35AM

Has anyone stumbled upon the actual article in question? Because I'd love to read it; somehow I think it is more substantive than Coons is pretending.

Brat Magursky| 9.23.10 @ 8:50AM

Appleby...we will all be labled Sta-lenin-marxa-phobes...but be of good cheer for one day a very large hole will open up on this wonderful planet and swallow Olbermann and Maher whole never to spit them out!

Lazy Jack| 9.23.10 @ 8:51AM

The vote in question:

Vote for an individual who hung out with foolish people who might have, in another time, been burned at the stake for practicing odd rituals, or medicine, or frankly just because somehone had a grudge against them, or...

...vote for a person with a fondness for people who were happy to do the burning.

After all, how may tens of millions died in the last century because of marxists with and without beards?

O'donnell might not be the best choice, but the alternative is arguably... your thought goes here.

Lazy Jack

www.thanksforthelaughs.wordpress.com

Possum Dearie| 9.24.10 @ 9:57AM

How many Jews died in the Holocaust? O'Donnell would blow the whistle on Anne Frank, barring an act of God, yet she can lie about how many counties she lost to Joe Biden in 2008 (it was all three, not just one) or how and whether she paid her mortgage or the IRS made a clerical error or why it took her two decades to pay for her tuition. Then there is her bigotry towards gays and ideas about women serving in the military. The witch stuff and masturbation jokes is just the sane folks having a laugh at someone who has no business serving in the US Senate.

Lionel Hutz | 9.23.10 @ 9:13AM

It still amazes me that Elaine from Seinfeld is running for Senate in Delaware. Remember the time she wanted her boyfriend to like the song "Witchy Woman." Now we understand why.

D| 9.23.10 @ 9:42AM

Yeah, that's cool, Lionel. We're talking about Chris Coons -- what article are you talking about?

megapotamus| 9.23.10 @ 10:17AM

Again, the problem with those using yesterday's tactics is that you presume that the very prospect of Elaine Benes running for Senate is more absurd than either the guy on the other side or the parade of genius that already sits there. The response to any Lefty making this sort of play is a simple three words: Me,
Al Franken

Howard| 9.23.10 @ 9:27AM

Unfortunately as always, there are two sets of rules; one for liberals, and one for conservatives. Therefore, the MSM will accuse of of waiving the bloody cloth, of accusing a "fine man of untrue beliefs". While O'Donnell will be accused of every sin known to man. We just have to deal with it,and keep on reporting the facts.

megapotamus| 9.23.10 @ 10:12AM

At this point I don't care if Odonell or Palin or Miller or anyone else on the right side shows up looking, sounding and acting like Ozzie Ozborn with a half of a bat hanging out of their mouths. Before Maher slithered forth I was saying; better a devout catholic than a devout commie. The outrage over Odonell's adhering to simple catholic doctrine was the bugaboo on that day. This witchy thing is a bad move for them as the more electorally damning thing was that she was denouncing Halloween! If Coons puts ads together on THAT we might be concerned, but of course as a Marxist he would, were he candid, denounce that burp of paganism and propose to replace it with some labor-centric concoction like Kwanzaa. What should be far more important to the DE voters (not me, btw) is that Coons has not been merely exposed as a liar but proven to be a liar on the greatest issue in this election, which is taxes/spending... really the same thing. He has proven, as a big fish in this small pond, that he will boldly lie during campaigns and just as boldly enact an opposite policy. Deleware, he is calling you stupid. REALLY stupid.... like Three Card Monte stupid when the dealer doesn't even have to turn over a card! This puke believes that you will pour your wallets out onto the ground for him without him even showing you any magic beans. Geez, is the decision really that difficult? Maybe so in DE, we shall see but this points up another reason the so-called Buckley Rule is obnoxious. If Castle had been nominated would he have ever made any mention of the disgusting reality of Coons? Even if he were down, no way. He was part of the clubby party that encompasses liberals of whatever party. Mentioning socialism or marxism is considered bad sport, old man. Don't you know "socialist" is just a word made up by mommas to scare their children? Why, really there is no such thing as a socialist, just us bright chaps and the drooling throng. And you don't want to be out there, do you?

megapotamus| 9.23.10 @ 10:20AM

In possibly related news, does anyone else hear a defeaning silence? Are the Leftoids just sleeping in? Usually a Tyrellosaurus roar gets them up and twists their knickers. I sense a lot of heads are down tactically or bowed, as the FranknBeans lady said, in exhaustion.

Baseball Mom| 9.23.10 @ 10:30AM

Can't get over how stupid/warped someone is who clings to Marxism in the '90s.. For crying out loud, the wall came down and you're still a Marxist? Sheesh.

Christopher Holland| 9.23.10 @ 9:41PM

They haven't been to Russia. I was there a month ago and I spent most of my time shaking my head and wondering how they coped, and why anybody ever thought the country was a superpower when so much of it was third world. Australia, where I live and America are paradise compared to Russia - poor people here live much better than the middle class in Russia. I feel sorry for the poor bastards, they put up with so much .

Give the Marxist a plane ticket to Russia - if that doesn't clear his head of all the agitprop, Little Red Book nonsense then nothing will.

Chris Coons is a stupid fool if he can get to this point in his life and not work this out for himself. The guy is a loser and I hope Christine O'Donnell turns him into a doormat. All his liberal mates can take him to a recycling centre and he can come back as a pair of flip flops.

Perusha| 9.23.10 @ 11:01AM

Chris Coons reminds me of a “friend” from University of California, Santa Barbara, a wild and crazy New Yorker. This burly wacko loved to go into bars and pick fights. But, his signature moment was being caught on tape throwing rocks into the Bank of Amerika, in 1970 or so.

Later, I heard he was pulled over for a vehicle violation when on the lam back east, and jailed when the police found dynamite in his van.

At the time I was totally apolitical, but this guy “charmed” naïve me into reading a Marxist “classic”, “Monopoly Capital”, by Baran and Sweezy, I believe. And, I was off and running as an already too old hippy, as my youthful caring heartstrings were expectedly pulled. Only when helping run a business and beginning my life’s love affair with the Wall Street Journal around 1978 did I wake up.

So, IMHO, each and every conscious American, epitomized by the heretofore blind sheep who support a**holes like Obama and Biden, et al (who are of course nothing but Marxist elites trying to impose socialist edicts under the phony Democratic Party name} are simply being offered the opportunity to really see such people naked, as the jay birds they are.

The only question is whether, on the always all important margin, a large enough percentage of them WILL wake up, when confronted with the unmistakable truth. I try to imagine walking in fooled people’s shoes, and recalling what it took for me to realize my own turnaround, dare I say it---I am actually feeling more and more full of HOPE that the required CHANGE is a coming.

I’ve long marveled at the sleeping giant mass of fellow citizens of this still-free country, most of whom are truly just unaware of the depth of the rot that’s permeated the electorate---in particular, those who vote for the jackass party candidates.

And, based on this simple awareness, isn’t it obvious that a massive shocking event, that cannot be ignored, had to happen?

Well, I thought that we’d need a worse attack than 9/11, since it seems to me that it is foreign enemies who most threaten our very existence as a free and independent country. However, it turned out that the willful blindness of the majority of Americans---with the “Independents” providing the at-the-margin edge---who swept Obama-the-Marxist and his enablers in congress into power, with what they thought was a one-and-done election, was the “benign” crisis we needed!

So, as many people have realized and said from the heart, America the lucky is AGAIN being given the opportunity, on November 2nd, to make the choice to stop all the decades of Marxist madness. Failure is NOT an option!

pb| 9.23.10 @ 7:42PM

I think I'm in love.

Possum Dearie| 9.23.10 @ 11:25AM

Coons will win, because he is not O'Donnell.

megapotamus| 9.23.10 @ 12:22PM

You couldn't say that about Castle, that is for sure.

Possum Dearie| 9.24.10 @ 9:40AM

Castle won 12 times in DE for being Castle. He lost this time, because O'Donnell and her talk radio pals painted him as Lincoln Chafee or Jim Jeffords. She could not have won portraying him as himself and by being honest about herself. You'll get that with these televangelists.

megapotamus| 9.24.10 @ 1:48PM

Ah, Castle has a record significantly to the right of Chaffee/Jeffords? Not hardly. And even if so, Castle was a target of opportunity. No Liberal Republicans are to be let alone, in my view, because the reality is they are Republican Liberals with all the disasters that implies. Such creatures should be running as Democrats. Let the liberal Castle fight it out with the commie Coons in the primaries.

Tim*| 9.23.10 @ 1:31PM

Coons loses because Delawareans : " Want Jobs Not Taxes ."

Coons can't run away , far enough from his serial taxing in New Castle County .

rigdum_funidos| 9.23.10 @ 4:16PM

you may be right. but Delaware and country will be the worse for it.

Tim*| 9.23.10 @ 7:29PM

No We Won't .

More Jobs Trump More Taxes .

The Tea Party RebellionEscalates

Rise Up !

Christopher Holland| 9.23.10 @ 9:46PM

Au contraire - Christine O'Donnell will win because she is Christine O'Donnell, and Chris Coons will lose because he is Chris Coons

Possum Dearie| 9.24.10 @ 9:43AM

But you're already on the defensive and down by a double digit margin with only a few weeks to go. I wonder how many Christine O'Donnell costumes we will see in DE this Halloween.

Jobe| 9.23.10 @ 11:31AM

O'Donnell will have to bring up the bizzare tax and commie info because the state owned media will never do it.

Doctor Right| 9.23.10 @ 12:16PM

To understand Coons, you really have to understand his spiritual hometown, Amherst, Massachusetts.

I went to UMASS-Amherst in the 1980's. No, it's not the same as Amherst College, but they share not only the town of Amherst, but the politics as well.

Nestled into the beautiful, picturesque Berkshire mountains, Amherst is fantasy-land for liberals, leftists, pinkos, and wackos. It is so far-left that it makes Harvard look positively Conservative. It was quite evident during the 80's that many 60's-holdovers had embedded themselves into the town and it's institutions of higher learning to spread their bizarre, Marxist Gospel.

This place is so out-of-touch with reality that UMASS-Amherst boasted at the time that they possessed the nation's most renowned Marxist Economics Department! This is the metaphorical equivalent of having a Flat-Earth Geography Department, or an Anti-Newtonian Physics Department, but the irony was completely lost on the true believers in the faculty and the brain-washed drones who they taught.

Some students who enter into this type of environment, even those who come from respectable, middle-class and upper middle-class families, came out of this experience as committed left-wingers...And some came out as die-hard Marxists.

It's what they're taught. It's what they come to believe. It's who they are.

Here's hoping O'Donnell's people will have the sense to turn this against Coons with some poignant and hard-hitting campaign ads.

This commie bum is beatable.

Dave Trapped in NYC| 9.23.10 @ 2:09PM

Liberal Media Template

Piece of shit, looney liberal, marxist =good

Oldefarte| 9.23.10 @ 3:26PM

Every blogger/reader here should forward R. Emmett's [and especially Jeffrey Lord's] outstanding articles to each/every friend/associate [especially those residing in Delaware] of theirs [and inform them to BOLO for future information from Hannity, York,etc]. This factual information simply must be provided to the public for their knowledge prior to 11/2/10; since Coons is obviously THE SECOND COMING OF BARACK OBAMA, philosophically speaking!!!!!!!!!

NOZZLE| 9.23.10 @ 3:27PM

O"Donnell- dabbled in Witchcraft Obama - dabbled in Reverend Wright, listened to his tapes while sleeping in lawschool and sat in his so called church for 20 years.

Which do you think demonstrates a greater degree of mental instability

John DuBose| 9.23.10 @ 3:36PM

The O'Donnell / Coons choice was imposed on Delaware by the madness of our venerated two party system with closed primaries.

There are better ways..

I am glad I do not live there and have to choose.

Becky| 9.23.10 @ 4:40PM

After the Marxist Democrats are sent packing, we need to get rid of all the Marxist teachings in these colleges. We do not want this leftist trash ideology taught in our education system. We need to start watching what these colleges are teaching. Next: This Coons guy sounds like a real gem. What is it when all these loons go to Africa and come back Marxists. (Voodoo or witch craft?) I guess Delaware voters will have to choose....but I'd go with good old Christine right now. She at least will tell you what she is going to do. Marxists like Coons will not tell you, they just lie to get into office and then they proceed to push their poisonous legislation to support their Marxist " black magic". Not anymore I hope, Americans are finally wising up..a vote for a Democrat now, is a vote to kill America. And we have to be careful who we vote for, no matter what party. I still don't understand why the Democrats have descended into such lunacy. Obama has turned out to be a bad joke, and yet the Democrats stand by and let him ruin their party. (AND please no Hillary in 2012, she is scary with all her professions of be a "progressive" and besides, I want to continue to buy the appliances that I want to buy, so she won't work either.) I am concerned about the Delaware Senate race, but right now I am still hung up on Obama's aunt receiving $700. a month and free housing. Why? Did Coons have anything to do with that? Raising taxes so working people pay for "auntie" and her illegal existence? Deport that demanding witch...speaking of witch craft.

aware| 9.23.10 @ 5:06PM

Damn commies never give up. No mess is too big that they can't add something to the pile.

Increase Mencken| 9.24.10 @ 12:30AM

If Justice Mather , late of Salem, shows up in Delaware, he'll have a field day, right and left.

Now on to NYU, RET

Nate| 9.24.10 @ 1:31PM

Your "guess" is that he's still a Marxist.

I "guess" that kind of precludes the idea that you're a JOURNALIST and will look for some kind of confirmation of things you report as fact?

megapotamus| 9.24.10 @ 1:53PM

Howabout this Nate? Some "real journalist" asks Coons ten percent of the questions asked Odonell about witchcraft? How does that sound? Let Obama get the Palin treatment. Let Coons get the Odonell treatment. Or jeez, let Biden get the Odonell treatment! Or maybe you can fill in for your buddies since they will never sit still for such a question, what is wrong with being a commie? Why is that such an invidious smear? I'm dying to know what foundation any Leftist has for objecting to Marxism that is more than a PR strategy.

albert constantine jr.| 9.24.10 @ 2:08PM

In Delaware, it has long been a problem that the state Republican Party executive committee has been dominated by moderates and fearful of developing strong candidates. Coons ran unopposed by Republicans in 2008, despite the fact that he had broken his no taxes. His predecessor Tom Gordon ran without a Republican challenger in 2000 as well (the year almost 30% of New Castle County voters voted for the Green party candidate). Attorney General Beau Biden (son of VPOTUS) has a horrendous record in office that is only helped by his absence for a year while he served with the Delaware National Guard in Iraq. Despite record violence and homicides during his tenure (the early incidence of which was featured in his 2004 campaign), the Republican Party in Delaware does not have a challenger for him. The party apparatus constantly supported Castle because he was one of the last two Republicans holding state wide office, and ignored the fact that he was more popular with non-Republicans that he was with serious members of the party. I'm not aware of anyone who was persuaded to vote for O'Donnell in the primary because of Rush, Hannity, or the DeMint/ Palin endorsement (not that they weren't considered affirming). Instead there was a consideration of Castle's records, combined with regard for Ms. ODonnell's willingness to serve as a conservative standard bearer with the courage to challenge candidates thought to be "unbeatable". Should she be victorious, the state Republican Party will deserve no credit. Should Coons manage to prevail, the State Republican Party should share in the blame, and should be reconstituted to develop Republican candidates that win state wide elections that Republican voters also support.