CHRIS McDANIEL SHOULD ANNOUNCE A PRESIDENTIAL BID RIGHT NOW

A challenge to Tuesday's election results? Yeah, I can understand why Chris McDaniel would be looking into that. But McDaniel really should set his sights higher. This is his moment, and he shouldn't let it pass him by.

He should declare himself a Republican candidate for president. He should say he's taking on the entire party establishment.

What credentials could endear him more to tea party Republicans nationwide than having been stabbed in the back (as all teabaggers see it) by the establishment -- specifically by the establishment's decision to reach out to black Democrats? Who could fire up the base more?

You say he doesn't have a chance because he's a loser? Remember that the last non-Romney standing in the 2012 Republican primaries was a guy who'd lost his most recent election by 18 points. Remember that the favorite presidential aspirant of many teabaggers is Ted Cruz, a guy normal people think was humiliated last fall during the failed government shutdown. Remember that the modern Republican Party -- the party of the Southern strategy and white resentment -- scored its first national victory in 1968 when a self-pitying two-time loser (for president, for governor) won the race for the White House.

Modern Republicans love scorned and humiliated movement standard-bearers; I predict that McDaniel would instantly move into contention for the nomination. Could he actually win it? Maybe not -- but just being a contender would open up a much more elevated level of right-wing grift to him.

Go for it, Chris. Visit Iowa and New Hampshire soon. Strike while the iron is hot.