So, okay. Here's how fucked Arizona is right now.
John McCain's up for reelection. And realistically, he's the best choice we've got.
He's being challenged in the primaries by one JD Hayworth.
Now, if you'll recall, back in '08, Guild made some considerable sport of talking to me like I didn't have a working knowledge of John McCain's background, knowing fully well that he'd been my senator since I was 4 years old.
Well, Hayworth became my congressman when I was 12. That'd be the '94 election -- he's one of Gingrich's boys.
And let's make no mistake here -- he's challenging McCain from the hard right. Everything I said about McCain in '08 is still true -- he's a bad, bad guy -- but Hayworth is worse. His
voting record reads like a cartoon caricature of a right-wing Republican. We tossed him out in '06, following a vicious campaign where he aired an attack ad suggesting his opponent (a former high school teacher) wanted to let child molesters out of prison. Since then, he's run a right-wing talk radio show.
He's essentially running entirely on an anti-immigrant agenda, and has Sheriff Joe backing him.
Which is why this time, Palin's actually going to be an asset for McCain, not a liability. As popular as Sheriff Joe is among the right-wing base, Palin is their goddamn messiah; the people who are likely to pick Hayworth because McCain isn't conservative enough are just as likely to do whatever Palin tells them to.
Which may be part of why the most recent Rasmussen poll has widened the gap between the two from "none" to "McCain, by 20 points". Which I must acknowledge is a real relief.
(Also: the guy who is polling in third place is the co-founder of the Minutemen. I need to get the fuck out of this state.)