Senate Candidates Of 2010: Not Ready For Prime Time

If you only listened to the news, or only read headlines on the Intertubes, you'd have to conclude that there are just plain not enough adults running for office this year. Let's review exhibits A through E on that subject:

• Joe Miller, Senate candidate in Alaska, thinks we ought to emulate the immigration policies of the former East Germany.
• Christine O'Donnell, Senate candidate in Delaware, doesn't think that the prohibition on an establishment of religion is part of the First Amendment.
• Jack Conway, Senate candidate in Kentucky, seems to think that there is a religious test for the office to which he aspires.
• Joe Manchin, Senate candidate for West Virginia, makes clear his opposition to "cap and trade" climate control laws by shooting a copy of the bill with a rifle.
• There seems to be a great debate about Sarah Palin cautioning her supporters to not yet "party like it's 1773." (For the record, 1773 is when the Boston Tea Party took place. Sadly for Gov. Palin, this reference is probably too obscure and subtle for most Americans.)

You know, politics hasn't been this entertaining since free beer and cider was passed out at rallies back in the Gilded Age. But where yesteryear's "free beer" rallies were the way serious politicians got elected, today fundamentally unserious politicians are now getting elected by promising free beer. Or at least, lower rent. People from other parts of the world have to be looking in to American politics this year and wondering what in the hell is going on over here. Come to think of it, you don't have to be from abroad to be wondering exactly the same thing.