The conventional wisdom is that the Republicans have shot themselves in the foot by nominating so many Tea Party-backed candidates who are too extreme to win in November. Dave Weigel rightly calls BS, pointing out that the same thing was said about many Democrats in 2006 and 2008. He could have used some of the Republican class of ’94 as examples as well. Then as now, the political climate will make the unelectable electable.

In fact, the polling date doesn’t really support the idea that Ken Buck or Rand Paul will lose. Sharron Angle remains at least a toss-up. And in every one of those cases, there were serious problems with the establishment-annointed candidates. The Tea Partiers won precisely because the establishment-backed frontrunners imploded. This is hardly a strong recommendation for the general election. That’s not to say all of the candidates will win or that even those who do will be able to survive in a less favorable election cycle. But the concern about who is making it out of the Republican primaries is mostly overblown.