Delaware GOP Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell is a last-minute addition to the Values Voters Summit schedule, and I can boldly predict she will be a huge hit here.
Questions are already being raised—from progressives—about the wisdom of what might be called the masturbation approach to talking about O’Donnell’s candidacy. Mike Tomasky writes, “a nice-looking woman talking about the virtues of chastity, and sharing her special secrets with the right man and only the right man, is not an unappealing figure to most people.” And Glenn Greenwald picks up on the dirty little secret most GOP bigwigs would rather tea partiers not know: that they share liberal cultural disdain for a figure like O’Donnell, who hardly comes from a country club background but plays with perfect pitch to the populist religious right.
Just like with Sarah Palin, the religious right will view ridicule of O’Donnell’s views on sex and sexuality like a badge of honor. She will be a heroine for being what they perceive as a victim.
O’Donnell’s sexual mores figure prominently in her views on policy on LGBT rights, abortion, and sex education, and a host of other issues. That’s worth exploring.
In any case, I’ll be posting dispatches from the Values Voters Summit here today and tomorrow. But if you prefer your Values Voters Summit in 140-character chunklets, you can follow me on Twitter, where the updates will be more in real time.
