When Christine O'Donnell stunned the pundits of both parties by winning the Republican primary for Senate in Delaware on Tuesday, she had $50,000 in the bank and trailed Democrat Chris Coons by 16-25 percentage points, depending on the poll. A day later, she had received over $1 million in donations, and Coons' lead was 11 points.

As Ed Morrissey pointed out, the "internals" of that poll were interesting. O'Donnell leads among independents. Her biggest problems right now are liberal Republicans and conservative Democrats — both groups would have been much more supportive of primary loser Mike Castle. Delaware is clearly more liberal than the nation — 54% approve of Obama's job performance, significantly higher than the national number of 45%.

But even Delaware voters favor repeal of Obamacare (53-43%), and 62% say the way to create jobs is to cut taxes, not increase government spending. So there's certainly room for a well-run, well-financed O'Donnell campaign to gain support on the issues. Especially if it can move the focus from her "extreme" views to Coons'. After all, this is a hard-core leftist who, some years ago, described himself (with tongue perhaps slightly in cheek) as a "bearded Marxist."

Yeah, O'Donnell has at least one truly flaky view: She urged young people not to masturbate because it necessarily involves "lusting in your heart" and thus violates the 10th Commandment. Oh, my … Well, that's patently incorrect, for one thing. But is this really an important issue? 

I went into work late today after a dental appointment, so I got to hear part of the Dennis Miller Show. Dennis is pretty libertarian — or what P.J. O'Rourke called a "Republican Party reptile." He's pro-choice and strongly supports gays in the military — as he puts it, anyone who's willing to put their life on the line defending us and killing jihadis deserves our thanks and support. He acknowledged that O'Donnell's anti-masturbation view is "pretty kooky." But he made a good point: What are the people who fret about this worried about — that she'll try to outlaw masturbation? Come on!

O'Donnell's other "baggage" appears to be entirely financial — she apparently went through a rough patch during which she failed to pay some taxes and mortgage payments, and she fell way behind in paying her student loans. Well, that sounds not all that different from about half of Obama's cabinet and countless members of Congress. If anything, her financial issues sound more innocent and less calculated.

No, she's not an ideal, perfect candidate. But her opponent's extreme leftist/quasi-Marxist views make him less than perfect, too, even to the average centrist. It's not at all obvious that she's unelectable — or should be. She's articulate, personable, and intelligent (judging from an interview I saw), and she is clearly and unequivocally focusing her campaign on fiscal/economic issues, and from my perspective she's 100% on those. 

I think I'll help her get to the $2 million mark. I suspect she'll get there pretty quickly, with Rush Limbaugh encouraging contributions to her campaign. 

It's not just shaping up to be a bad year for Democrats. It's also a bad year for Republicans who are indistinguishable from Democrats. In a stunning upset in Delaware, an unknown and somewhat flawed Tea Party candidate, Christine O'Donnell, came out of nowhere to defeat establishment-backed Rep. Mike Castle 53-47% for the Republican Senate nomination.

Castle is arguably the most liberal Republican in the House. He backed "cap-and-tax," supports gun control, flip-flopped about four times on Obamacare, and in 2008, voted for Dennis Kucinich's H.R. 1258 to impeach George W. Bush. Nevertheless, he had the full support of the GOP establishment because "he can win." They didn't care how he'd vote on taxes, spending, regulation, gun control, and energy, as long as he helped them regain their committee chairmanships. Asshats.

In New York, Tea Party candidate Carl Paladino crushed establishment-backed former Rep. Rick Lazio 63-37% in the GOP gubernatorial primary. And in New Hampshire, Tea Party candidate Ovide Lamontagne has a slim lead over the establishment-backed favorite, Kelly Ayotte, for the GOP senate nomination. 

So, after the victories of Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Pat Toomey, Sharon Angle, Mike Lee, Joe Miller, and others, is the GOP leadership feeling chastened and getting the message? Not exactly. The Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee has already decided not to support Christine O'Donnell in the general election. Because "she can't win." Mind you, these are the same people who poured vast resources into the Castle campaign and claimed that O'Donnell had no chance in the primary. The grass roots have changed, but at the top, it's still the Stupid Party. 

Never mind what the NRSC does. As a Libertarian, I've never donated to the GOP or its campaign committees, but I've supported plenty of specific Republican candidates via the Club for Growth and groups like the Tea Party Express. From what I've read, lots of former GOP donors must be doing likewise, because donations to the GOP campaign committees are lagging even as support for GOP candidates is surging. 

One of the most significant stats coming out of this year's primaries is this (emphasis added): 

Of the 30 million ballots cast in 2010 for statewide offices before Sept. 1, more than 17 million were in Republican races, while fewer than 13 million were for Democrats—the first time since 1930 that GOP voters outnumbered Democrats in midterm, statewide primaries, according to an analysis from American University's Center for the Study of the American Electorate. 

The Republican base is energized, as many pundits have noted. But it's not because of the Republican leadership, that's for sure. If that energy level translates into a transformational election this November, hopefully there will be some major changes in that leadership. 

UPDATE: It didn't take long for the pragmatists in the Republican leadership to read the tea leaves, check their email, and realize they'd better "adjust" their positions. NRSC chair John Cornyn has pledged that they'll fully support Christine O'Donnell and backed it up with a check. RNC chair Michael Steele has weighed in even more forcefully in support of O'Donnell. (I still like Steele. I think his heart is in the right place, even if his head isn't always screwed on tight and his management skills are somewhat suspect.)