LAST NIGHT – AT 8:23 A.M. ET:  Most of the buzz, of course, surrounds the victory of Christine O'Donnell over Mike Castle for the GOP Senate nomination in Delaware.

We hope O'Donnell goes on to win in November, although the odds are heavily against her.  However, let me not mince any words:  I see signs that the Republican Party is making the same mistakes the Democratic Party has made since the 1960s, becoming a rigid, ideological force.  America is an idealistic country, not an ideological one.  The genius of American politics has always been its sense of the practical.  Unlike Europe, transitions from one party to the other in the halls of government rarely produce great trauma or convulsions.

Contrast Ronald Reagan with Barry Goldwater.  Goldwater was a rigid ideologist, whereas Reagan was a practical, innovative conservative who knew how to talk to the nation and appeal to the great American center, where elections are won.  Reagan became president, Goldwater remained a semi-important senator.  Reagan changed the nation, Goldwater did not.

The main reason Obama and his party are in deep trouble right now is that Americans realized, too late for the 2008 election, that the Obamans are rigid, leftist ideologists.  They will be sent a message.

I think the tea party has added enormously to the excitement and vigor of the campaign.  The movement will bring many conservatives to the polls.  But it is a movement, not a party.  It is not expert at what parties are supposed to do – win general elections, not just primaries.

Tea partier Christine O'Donnell is a highly flawed candidate, already behind in polling for the general election.  In Nevada, weak tea party candidate Sharron Angle has, through her blunders, turned an easy GOP victory against Harry Reid into a horse race.  In New York, the tea partiers got behind Carl Paladino, who has now won the GOP nomination for governor.  But Paladino is a crude amateur who, frankly, is an embarrassment.  It won't matter much in very blue New York, which will elect Andrew Cuomo, son of Mario, as its next governor.  But it could have been a better fight.

In New Hampshire, even Sarah Palin's backing wasn't enough to assure Kelly Ayotte the Republican nomination for the Senate.  She's still locked in an almost dead heat with a tea partier, with votes being counted. 

I pose this question:  What happens the day after election if we wake up to find that the Republicans fell just two or three votes short in their quest to take over the U.S. Senate, and the losses were in Delaware, Nevada and perhaps New Hampshire?  What happens will be a civil war in the Republican Party, just when we need unity.

Bill Buckley said it best.  He advised voting for the most right-leaning viable candidate in primaries. 

This election is about the future of the nation, about stopping the leftist freight train choo-chooing through Washington.  Demanding ideological purity in the Republican Party will not do it.  Reagan never demanded it on the Republican side, Roosevelt never demanded it on the Democratic side. 

We need a political revolution in Washington, not the French revolution.  Be careful with that political guillotine.

September 15, 2010