LAS VEGAS — Voters across America praying for the overthrow of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid owe a special debt of gratitude to Delaware Republican Christine “I’m not a witch” O’Donnell.
If it were not for O’Donnell, Reid challenger Sharron Angle would still be the craziest lady in this election cycle. In which case Angle — instead of O’Donnell — might be trailing by double digits without any hope of toppling the most powerful man in the US Senate.
As it is now, polls show Angle consistently leading Reid — if only by a sliver — as they head into the final day of the campaign.
To be sure, the bar is low for Angle. People here speak flatly of the “blinding hatred” that voters harbor toward Reid.
At the annual Nevada Day festival in Carson City over the weekend, a small plane flew overhead dragging behind a simple message: “Anyone but Reid.”
For her part, Angle has pooh-poohed the whole idea that our health-care system might be a wee bit out of whack.
She has mused about overthrowing the government.
And she has spent much of her campaign criticizing Reid’s efforts to create jobs as somehow overzealous — not exactly a winning strategy in a state where unemployment is 15 percent.
Her Republican handlers have gone to great lengths to keep a buffer between the media and her uncontrollably smiling mouth that always seems poised to spew crazy juice all over the place.
Luckily for Angle, she is running against Reid, who has written the book on cringe-worthy utterances, everything from declaring a war lost while we still had boys on the ground to grousing about the smelly tourists who traipse through the Capitol.
Add on top of that the fact that Reid has become the face of the bailout, big-government, death-panel agenda of Washington Democrats, and you have a real race on your hands.
Voters here are pretty clear: They are not voting tomorrow to send some great stateswoman to Washington; they are voting to remove Harry Reid.
So thank God for Christine O’Donnell and her dabbling in sorcery.