It's so obvious that I have to wonder whether Palin, South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint, and the rest of the tea-party crowd did any vetting of O'Donnell whatsoever. Or was her not being Mike Castle (the moderate Republican congressman she toppled in the primary) all they required to start airlifting millions of dollars into Delaware?
It's worth noting that most of the outrageous O'Donnell quotes you will hear during these weeks leading up to the election - about dating witches in high school, the similarities between masturbation and infidelity, and the fallacy of evolution - are coming from the same kind of source: a television show. In case you haven't noticed, O'Donnell likes being on television. And the best way to get on television is to make crazy, outrageous statements.
Voters this year seem drawn to apparent outsiders, but here's another piece of evidence that O'Donnell is not one: Since 2003, when she moved to Delaware, this is her third campaign for the Senate. That's not the record of a purposeful political outsider. To the contrary, it demonstrates her lust for insider status. The only thing keeping O'Donnell on the outside is the persistent will of the voters.
One of the tea partyers' founding principles is honesty and fiscal responsibility. The movement's members are tired of politicians who spend their money in superfluous and even criminal ways. O'Donnell falls well short of this standard, too.
During her 2008 campaign, O'Donnell failed to live up to her commitments to pay her staff and vendors for their services. She used campaign funds to pay for private trips and even her rent. And this time around, she's written campaign checks to her mother.
