BEING GLARINGLY UNFIT FOR OFFICE IS NOT A DEALBREAKER FOR REPUBLICANS

I'm not at all surprised by this:

Iowans appear ready to give Cain benefit of the doubt on sexual harassment allegations

Iowa conservatives appear unready to jump off the Herman Cain train -- unless damning evidence emerges that proves the presidential candidate was less than truthful Monday when he denied allegations of sexual harassment.

The Des Moines Register spoke by phone with more than 20 likely Republican caucusgoers who participated in the Oct. 23-26 Iowa Poll, and none said the allegations had moved them to reject Cain as a potential pick....

Poll respondents contacted by the Register said they’re still on the Cain train all the way....

I'm not saying that nothing can possibly undermine Cain in his fans' eyes. I'm just saying that wingnuts' ideas about what makes a candidate suitable or unsuitable are, to say the least, not the same as yours or mine.

In fact, it takes a lot to get them to abandon someone they've settled on as a champion. Remember Christine O'Donnell and Carl Paladino? They were two of the most discredited wingnut candidates to appear on ballots in the 2010 general election. After everything that was revealed about them, you'd think that even Republicans would give them a wide berth.

You'd be wrong.

Paladino actually won 1,548,101 votes in New York State in 2010 -- more than the (establishment) GOP candidate, John Faso, won in 2006 against Eliot Spitzer. (Faso won only 1,274,335 votes.) Spitzer won more than 3 million votes against Faso; Cuomo didn't quite top 3 mil against Paladino. Paladino won the votes of 77% of New York Republicans in 2010; in 2006, Faso won the votes of only 68% of New York Republicans.

O'Donnell? Same deal. Remember, she got 40% of the vote in 2010 against Chris Coons. (Republican Jan Ting got only 27% of the vote against Tom Carper in the 2006 Delaware Senate race, and O'Donnell herself got only 35% of the vote in '08 against Joe Biden, who was also on the ballot as a VP candidate.) O'Donnell actually won the majority of the white vote in Delaware, according to exit polls, and 82% of Republicans voted for her. And though turnout in the 2010 Delaware Senate election was 77% of what it was in the '08 Senate race, O'Donnell's vote total was 88% of what it was in '08 -- even after she'd become a national laughingstock.

So wingers stick with their heroes. It takes a lot to get them to abandon someone. I think the only thing that will do it in Cain's case is the appearance of a new contender for the hero crown. (Quick -- get Chris Christie to run!)