A lot depends on whether the R's have the cajones to campaign as dirty as a party that would accuse a decent man of giving a woman cancer. Imagine--footage of her screeching, "What difference, at this point, does it make?" repeated over and over, juxtaposed with images of the burning embassy, flag-draped caskets, etc. The difference is leadership--you either have it or you don't, and she doesn't.
It's unfortunate, but negative campaigning works.
And the Democrats have learned that most Republicans won't go down that road, giving them a free pass to fight against mostly unarmed opponents.
Even here in Mass. with the recently concluded Markey v. Gomez race. Even though a Markey victory was all but guaranteed, virtually all of the campaign literature from Markey's team didn't explain what a Markey victory will bring to Massachusetts, but what will be lost if Gomez wins.
Gomez barely fought back, and when he did, he went the traditional Republican route and tried to win on his own merit instead of returning fire against Markey.
