Who will become the next Senator from Delaware?

[Dan the Roman]

The problem with personal foibles is that they become damaging when they pass into pop culture. Rand Paul's problems are not entertaining, nor are they about sex, and therefore they fade from view when he shuts up. Sharon Angle has genuine trouble shutting up.

The problem with O'Donnell is not that her views are extreme, or even that her statements are insane in and of themselves. Its that they are interesting, and to add a point, the fact that she is attractive makes her views about sex even moreso of interest. O'Donnell may benefit from the factors you noted if she runs an energetic anti-establishment campaign, but go onto facebook sometime or twitter and see how many apolitical or usually apolitical people are talking about her in the next few days. Becoming a pop culture phenomenon is dangerous in this context because what she really needs is to establish herself as being serious and this makes it impossible.

Watch her the next few days. But she has a real problem because

1. She has said a lot of stupid things about sex and religion
2. People care about these
3. There is video of it
4. The video is hilarious