Media strains to find election theme

While voters in a dozen states had their say on Tuesday, corporate media tried in vain to paint that statement with a broad brush.

Is anti-incumbent fever sweeping the land? Are tea-baggers tilting Republicans and the nation to the extreme right? Are Democrats doomed?

The short answer to those questions is "no," but as with all elections, there were exceptions Tuesday as there will be in November. As with many elections, it was mixed bag with no clear trend emerging.

Elections are local affairs that have their own peculiarities.

Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., was presumed dead before Tuesday. She survived to possibly win another term. The anti-Washington sentiment failed spectacularly there.

Tea Party candidates had middling success, but suffered three defeats in Virginia where the right-wing governor turned his attention to the Lost Cause in April and was roundly booed for doing so.

The big Tea Party surprise occurred in Nevada, where tea-bagger Sharron Angle defeated her GOP challengers to face Harry Reid.

Reid, considered the most vulnerable of Democrats, should have a cake-walk in November because Angle is a certifiable nutcase. Check out this story. Here's a slice:

Angle embraces the "patriot group Oath Keepers, whose membership of uniformed soldiers and police take an oath to refuse orders they see as unconstitutional -- including enforcement of gun laws, violations of states' sovereignty, and 'any order to blockade American cities, thus turning them into giant concentration camps.' "

Well, isn't that special?

But, for sheer fruitiness, no one compares to queen birther Orly Taitz, who ran for secretary of state in California. Republican leaders were frightened at the possibility of Taitz running in November and made sure she was defeated by a 3-to-1 margin. Still, she got nearly 400,000 votes, which shows there are a lot of kooks (and racists) running around in California. Another birther was spanked in South Dakota. For background on Taitz and the birther movement, check out this Wikipedia link.

California millionaires, Carly Fiorina and Meg Whitman, easily won their GOP senate and governor's races, respectively. They spent millions on their primaries and will sink millions more into the general election. Fiorina, who almost ran HP into the ground (I will never buy another HP product), and Whitman, who fled eBay before she could do much harm, prove that elections are decided by big money. Here's hoping that they squander their fortunes by losing to Barbara Boxer and Jerry Brown and in failing to boost their own bloated egos.

Speaking of money, this last link should show everyone, tea-baggers and the quasi-angry alike, what is truly wrong with our country. We have an incomprehensibly high national debt, and this story, about a deceased billionaire evading all inheritance taxes, from Texas no less, is one reason why.