Election Day

I could almost stomach the idea of the GOP getting control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate if I knew that Sharon Angle and Christine O'Donnell wouldn't win. While I may disagree with a lot of GOP candidates, I believe those two are genuinely dangerous for America. Speaking of dangerous, New York gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino is another frightening prospect. Then again, so is Jerry Brown in California. Politics is always a mixed bag, where voters are often faced with the lesser of two evils, but that's no excuse not to vote if you're eligible. If you're eligible to vote and you don't do it, then your complaints are merely whining.

Why Are The Democratic Candidates So Boring?

Putting aside the corrosive impact of the "tea party" on American politics, they deserve credit at least for backing colorful candidates. When you're up against the likes of Christine O'Donnell, Carl Paladino and Rick Iott, it's harder and harder to feel like San Francisco liberal darling Nancy Pelosi is in any meaningful way outside of the hum-drum mainstream of American culture. Seriously, the tea-party wing of the GOP has the congressional candidate who enjoys dressing up in a Nazi uniform, the evolution denier who would be senator and the gubernatorial candidate whose homophobic remarks may be some of the less offensive things he's said. Read the stories below and tell me how the democrats can compete with this.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/tea-party-nazi-reenactor-rick-iott-defends/story?id=11845422

http://abcnews.go.com/News/christine-odonnell-evolution-myth/story?id=11721684

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/2010_Elections/carl-paladino-gay-successful-option/story?id=11846967

Please democratic party, what good is winning the war of ideas if you lose the battle of media attention. Candidates like Christine (not a witch) O'Donnell, Carl (I'll take you out) Paladino and Rick (doesn't like the Nazi ideology, just digs the clothes) Iott may be bad for the country, but they're much better for the media circus that really makes the country go. Sadly, I suspect that the remainder of the election cycle will ignore boring, dedicated public servants like Barbara Mikulski and Chris Van Hollen. Then again, if people vote for those boring, dedicated public servants on election day, I guess I can live with it.

Loose Lips

It's always nice when a political candidate says something that makes it completely clear that you should not vote for them. A few years ago, we had George Allen with his "macaca" comment in Virginia. This year, we get Tea Party backed New York gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino who continually demonstrates his unfitness for office. Arguably, the finest example was his pronouncement that he would use the power of eminent domain to keep the proposed site of an Islamic community center in Manhattan from becoming a "monument to those who attacked our country."Putting aside the civil libertarian issues that raises, some may wonder whether he actually believes this is what Park51 would be or is simply saying this for political advantage, but frankly it's irrelevant, because either answer makes him unfit for office.