We still don’t have clear read out of Nevada. But it’s not too early to take some stock of what tonight tells us. We know about the huge tide of anti-incumbency across the country. Blanche Lincoln looks like the exception that proves the rule on that one. And whatever you think of Lincoln, don’t underestimate the difficulty for an incumbent of getting pushed into a primary run-off with a very disappointing result and then coming back to win the run-off. That’s very difficult.
But I think the big story here is Nevada. Harry Reid is weak. And Sue Lowden looked like a serviceable establishment GOP candidate who could take him out. But she self-destructed and the win looks like it will go to Sharron Angle, a hard-right Tea Partier who makes Rand Paul look like a bit of a trimmer. And no, that’s not hyperbole.
This is the kind of result national Republicans have been desperately hoping to avoid. And it’s the price of the ‘energy’ Republicans have been benefiting from on the right. In Nevada, you might say, their chickens are coming home to roost.
That doesn’t mean that Democrats aren’t going to have a really rough November. But when you look at this result, the Democratic win in John Murtha’s seat last month and a lot of other small tells, it starts to look like Republicans may trip up their own stride enough to allow Dems to get away with a bad November rather than a catastrophic one. Maybe.
