This is all perfectly reasonable, but let me ask you:
What about Daschle versus Thune? Nothing I've read about Thune suggests to me that he is any better ideologically than the typical congressional Republican. But wouldn't it be a great victory -- not only psychologically, but in terms of political consequences -- if we offed Tom Daschle?
In other words, we have to look at how bad the opponent is, not only how excellent our guy is.
What I would point out, though, is that there is no reason why it had to be Thune this year challenging Daschle -- a much more conservative guy who had Thune's likeability, experience, and charisma would be challenging Daschle just as strongly. The problem? That individual didn't exist in SD -- and I find that fact appalling.
South Dakota's GOP is dreadful at identifying and grooming good conservative politicians. South Dakota's Democrats, on the other hand, are masters at identifying, grooming and dressing up electable liberal candidates. I think GOP conservatives in general aren't terribly good at it, but we need to get good at it if we hope to have conservative Republicans in high office.
Look at SD's neighbor, Montana: Marc Racicot chose as his running mate for Lieutenant Governor a bozo named Judy Martz. She was then the "heir apparent" when he was term limited and went to Washington to lobby and run the Bush/Cheney campaign. She was elected Gov, and has been an absolute disaster for the GOP in Montana. The GOP will probably lose the governor's slot in that state because of this disastrous choice.
Lieutenant Gov is a stepping stone to higher office in any state: lots of name recognition, etc... Why was that spot wasted on a poor candidate? You can't tell me that there wasn't a single interested smart, telegenic, conservative Republican in the entire state. Marc Racicot would have been elected with Ho-Ho the Clown as his running mate -- this was a perfect opportunity to introduce a great future rising star to Montana politics -- any rising star.
I'll stop ranting -- I'm obviously not ranting at you, but at the ineffectiveness of conservatives. I just refuse to buy any longer the wholesale "electability" justification for lukewarm Republicans, and plan to use what little time, effort, money, and influence I have to promote, at the local level, good guys who can climb the ladder and keep winning races. We need 'em.