With less than three weeks to go till the midterm election, President Obama has made the inexplicable choice to undercut the claims of many of his Democratic compatriots that the GOP has been taken over by uncompromising extremists incapable of sensible governing. In an interview with Peter Baker of the New York Times, Obama predicts [...]

National Democrats want to make this election about the past, but elections are almost always a referendum on the present, that is unless the candidates on hand have gone out of their way to make themselves truly unacceptable. This election is a vivid reminder that who the candidates are still matters, at least when they are as clearly flawed as some of the Republicans running this year.

GOP nominee Christine O’Donnell is clearly one extremely flawed candidate, and her upset win in the Republican primary helped all but guarantee that Democrats will keep control of this open Senate seat. Two new polls have Democrat Chris Coons leading by double digits.

We’re seeing more and more discussion of the fact that Republican candidates nationwide have basically dropped off the map, relying on advertising and the national mood over retail campaigning and public appearances.

Christine O’Donnell – terrified about turning Chinese.

What’s going to sink O’Donnell in Delaware isn’t that she’s a crazy person who opposes sex and masturbation and thinks “Why aren’t monkeys still evolving into humans?” is a killer argument against evolution. It’s that she’s a Sarah Palin-like grifter and Mark “Intelligence Office of the Year” Kirk-like serial exaggerator.

The freak show has come to staid, pedestrian Delaware, in the form of Christine O’Donnell and her litany of crazy. But while the national media and late-night comics focus on condoms, masturbation and witchcraft, the man who is likely to become the next Senator from the state has quietly gone about his business. I had the opportunity to talk with Coons about the race, the O’Donnell madness, and his specific positions on issues he could face shortly in the Senate.

Just like there are Baptists that drink, Catholics who support liberation theology and a variety of other shades and hues in the Christian coloring book–as well as some who go outside the lines–there are all variety of witches. Not all witches are Satanists. Or Druids, Wiccans, Re-Weavers, Dianic, shamans, or members of the Ancient, Secret and Unacceptable Order of the Almond Bear Claw Danish Qabalistic Coffee Coven ™, any more than not all Christians are narrow-minded theocratic, anti-sex, anti-gay, fundamentalists. Heck, some witches aren’t even religious, they just have mad skillz.

One of the most compelling elements of this political drama has been the interaction between The LGBT movement and the migrant youth movement. What to an outsider might be perceived as two unrelated constituencies, perhaps even hostile to each other, have been working long before this moment to build unity and solidarity. It is one thing to believe in the truth that we are all woven into a “single garment of destiny.” It is another to live that truth and act on it. The migrant youth movement and the LGBT movement having been living and acting on that truth, as we all should. My freedom is tied up with the freedom of everyone else in the universe, and today we have a chance to set close to a million people free.

Witches! Bloody altars! Aqua Buddha! Andy Cuomo’s lesions! All in a day’s Tea Party campaign.