Making Up Christine

The News Journal,Jennifer Corbett/AP

Although the photo was taken on September 15th, the day after her primary victory, it also appeared a few days ago illustrating a NYT article explaining how Christine O’Donnell has remained incredibly scarce. If that’s the case though, it’s also true that — the Tea Party not withstanding — GOP handlers and campaign types have been moving in to drive the largely stealth campaign.

What the picture also speaks to, though, is how many of these ultra-right Tea Party primary winners are repositioning and repackaged themselves to both submit to the GOP establishment as well as appeal to a wider swath of the electorate. In COD’s case, Christine being by far the most unqualified candidate of the current crop of insurgents, the more democratic blue, the flag pin and the literal hands-on speaks to how much some candidates are pure invention.

By the way, this is the widely reported three-bedroom, two-bath townhouse in Delaware where Christine O’Donnell pays half of her rent with campaign donations.  It also looks pretty tuned up, as opposed to the house she sold after defaulting on her mortgage which (see previous link) she supposedly didn’t treat too well.

(caption: In this Sept. 15, 2010 photo, Delaware Republican Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell receives attention from a campaign staff member before giving a quick interview to a local television station at her Greenville, Del., apartment a day after she defeated Republican Mike Castle in the Republican primary. As she did in two previous Senate bids, O’Donnell ran a shoestring operation this year before an injection of tea party support and advertising dollars propelled her to a primary upset over veteran congressman and former two-term governor Mike Castle.)