I wouldn’t be so sure about Barnes. He was one of a few conservative/GOP media types who went on this cruise to Alaska in the summer of 2007 and met with the new Governor. Shortly after The Weekly Standard ran a very favorable story on her, and both him and Bill Kristol were very supportive of Gov Palin for the VP slot. In fact, rather than being gay I think it may be more accurate to say there was a bit of a crush going on. Him and Kristol have been very supportive of Haley in SC, Whitman in CA, Fiorina in CA, Brewer in AZ, etc...
I don’t think it’s sexism with O’Donnell. It’s more that Castle was seen as a sure thing to take a Senate seat and now it’s much more difficult and in a close election it could end up making a huge difference. If O’Donnell polled the same vs the dem as Castle it’d be very different. In two weeks if she’s closed the gap everyone will be back on board.
Still, lets not ignore the facts when it comes to O’Donnell. She got 35% in 2008 against Biden. She came in 3rd in the GOP primary in 2006. She has no political experience. No foreign policy/natl security experience. She does have a lot of baggage. It will be much tougher to win the seat with her than with Castle.
The real issue is whether winning with Castle cuts it anymore in today’s environment.
I think they overstate the impact anyway. Castle only would have mattered if the GOP won exactly 10 seats. If they ended up with 52+ or 50 or below he wouldn’t matter as far as the majority. The odds that DE ends up being the decisive state are very low. And Castle showed his true colors today by refusing to endorse O’Donnell. Is he really the guy we want to stake our majority on? Could we really have counted on him for anything? No.
That said there definitely is sexism among many others in the media. More on the left I think. You saw it just as bad against Hillary.
Well said, jeltz25!