http://tv.gawker.com/5639356/jon-stewart-on-christine-odonnell-the-palin-is-strong-in-this-one

at close to 70 years of age, I would live to see a twit obsessed with masturbation running for the U. S. SENATE - not running for dogcatcher - not running for the local school board and not on a weirdo ticket - not a Moonie - not a LaRouchie - but as the candidate for the REPUBLICAN Party from the State of Delaware.

The party of Abraham Lincoln. The Party of Teddy Roosevelt. The Party of Dweight Eisenhower, Robert Taft, and Everett Dirksen; Jacob Javits and Barry Goldwater - yes the Party of Ronald Reagan has come to this.

It's not funny.

It's tragic.

We get the government we deserve.

Remember that funny little German corporal with the mustache?

What on earth is going on? These days, a grounding in clinical psychology is probably of more use than a PhD in political science in determining the mood of the US voters ahead of November's mid-term elections. But whether or not the country is experiencing a collective nervous breakdown, last week's batch of primary results have established one thing beyond doubt – that America's electorate has never in modern times been angrier, more volatile and less predictable than now.

The most spectacular proof came in the normally inconsequential state of Delaware, where Christine O'Donnell – spectacularly unqualified but blessed by the Tea Party and Saint Sarah and making all the right ultra-conservative noises – defeated Mike Castle, the state's highly popular former governor, in the Republican primary for the Senate seat long held by Vice-President Joe Biden. A month or two ago, such a result would have been unthinkable. But then came a Palin tweet on behalf of Ms O'Donnell, and the rest is history.

She is the seventh outsider, no less, backed by the insurgent Tea Party movement to topple a Senate candidate endorsed by the Republican establishment in this tumultuous primary season. Ms O'Donnell has had run-ins with the tax man, failed to meet her mortgage payments and equates masturbation with adultery, and may be a bridge too far for the good citizens of Delaware in November's general election. But some of the Tea Party crowd will certainly win, in an election year shaping up as a rout for the Democrats.

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/rupert-cornwell/rupert-cornwell-has-america-gone-mad-2083294.html

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Gus: the America's electorate is angrier, more volatile and less predictable than ever before ... to which I would add MORE STUPID than ever before... and as we know doing it will make you go blind. See toon at top...

Republican Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell is making light of comments she made more than a decade ago about dabbling in witchcraft.

During an appearance yesterday at a Republican picnic in southern Delaware, O'Donnell said she was in high school when she dabbled in witchcraft. She asked the audience: "How many of you didn't hang out with questionable folks in high school?"

O'Donnell, a conservative Christian activist who led a TV campaign against masturbation, won the Republican Senate primary last week with the help of Tea Party supporters. Her comments about witchcraft were made during an episode of comedian Bill Maher's Politically Incorrect show.

A clip hit the internet as O'Donnell canceled appearances on two national news shows.

The context of what led to her comments is not clear, and O'Donnell is laughing while she talks.

"I dabbled into witchcraft. I never joined a coven," she said. " ... I hung around people who were doing these things. I'm not making this stuff up. I know what they told me they do," she said.

http://www.smh.com.au/world/odonnell-makes-light-of-witchcraft-comment-20100920-15i78.html

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