In response to Louisiana: Off and Running, Again:
The Democrats have started pulling their ad buys for the Louisiana runoff, so Landrieu’s career is likely to end with a sad little ellipsis where the Party half-heartedly pretends she has a chance because she’s a great debater or something – that’s literally what they said when trying to spin the cancellation of their advertising for her. Unfortunately for the Great Debater, her Republican opponent, Bill Cassidy, has only agreed to one debate before the runoff… plus one more for every visit the radioactive Barack Obama makes to the state.
It’s almost strange to see Landrieu pushing this until the runoff, since it’s not impossible for her to win, but it looks very unlikely. The simple math of Maness voters coming home to Cassidy is forbidding, not to mention the low enthusiasm among dejected Democrats whose reward for pulling Landrieu across the fini sh like would be one more frowny face in a defeated Senate minority. The people of Louisiana in general would be better off with a fresh new seat in the majority than a weary 97% Obama supporter spending the next two years trying to convince them to double down on failure.
Cassidy made some stumbles in the general campaign – he really should have been able to put Landrieu away on Election Night, even with Maness spoiling the race – but he’d have to work pretty hard to lose this runoff.