NEVADA – A CAUTION LIGHT FOR REPUBLICANS – AT 9:53 A.M. ET:  It's the oldest political cliché:  "You can't beat somebody with nobody."  Sometimes, parties try.

In Nevada, the GOP is sure trying.  It has managed to turn an easy victory over Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid into a horse race by nominating a gaffe-prone, inadequate candidate.  Scott Rasmussen has been monitoring Nevada, and has the details:

Democratic Senator Harry Reid and his Republican challenger Sharron Angle are still neck-and-neck in Nevada’s race for U.S. Senate.

The latest Rasmussen Reports statewide telephone survey of Likely Voters shows the candidates tied with 45% of the vote each. Five percent (5%) prefer another candidate and six percent (6%) more are undecided...

...Earlier this year, Reid was considered to be one of the Senate’s most vulnerable incumbents. He picked up just 39% of the vote following Angle’s primary victory but has seen his own numbers improve to 41% in late June, 43% in early July, 45% in late July and 47% in mid-August...

...For Angle, the numbers have been heading in the opposite direction. The GOP nominee attracted 50% of the statewide vote following her primary victory in early June. That fell to 48% later that month, 46% in early July and 43% in late July.

COMMENT:  There is growing concern about ideological rigidity in the GOP, and it is justified.  To win, a party must be inclusive.  It must nominate capable, solid, go-the-distance candidates, not just those who adhere to a narrow, politically correct (for the right) agenda.

I heard an old war horse recently even attack Charles Krauthammer, one of the leading conservative writers and thinkers today...because he'd once been a Democrat.  Of course!   Many GOP stars began on the other side, and that included Ronald Reagan.  The glory of the Reagan Revolution is that it brought so many new people into our camp.  Yet, there are those who insist on a pure pedigree, starting at birth.

This can be a "wave" election, but the Republicans can still blow it, especially in Senate races.  There are some weak, flaky GOP candidate out there.  The Democrats are unpopular, but the Republicans are not exactly loved.  If voters get a whiff of extremism, they may just stick with the devil they know.  Most of the races Republicans are counting on to make great gains in the Senate are very close, with no room for blunders or purges.  I'm not sure this lesson is being absorbed.

September 3, 2010