For most of the past nine months, the Democrats have had a modest but durable 5-point advantage in the generic ballot test (i.e., “Who are you more likely to vote for in next November’s election — the Republican or the Democratic candidate?”).
Given the context under which the ruling party is running — an OK-but-not-great economy, an on-again, off-again conflict in the Middle East that has increased gasoline prices, and the general fatigue associated with any sixth-year election of a president — it is remarkable that the Republicans have managed to stay within double digits of Democrats.
The only rational explanation for the narrowness of the Democratic advantage is that their candidates are not very good. That is no doubt in part because some of them give off the faint whiff of deputy commandants in reeducation camps.
The woman who just barely missed becoming the Democratic nominee for governor in Wisconsin, Francesca Hong, is a good example. She dislikes Thanksgiving, for all the reasons one might expect from a young and promising apparatchik. She wants to abolish the police. She doesn’t like Culver’s restaurants (which should be a crime).
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