of control what the party does, which i think is going to have actually quite interesting implications when we come to the presidential campaign in 2012 in terms of who may end up getting the nomination. it may not be who the party wise men in washington, the lobbyists think is the best candidate. it s really, power is coming up from the people in a way that makes the party leadership nervous. jumping off of that point. last night, our jessica yellin asked christine o donnell, what about some of these rumbles saying we may not go up and support her in delaware with money or ground forces. she may say to that, well, i ve got the tea party. comments like that already coming out of washington are not going to endear the party. and you can see a kind of civil war within the party. kate, let me turn it to you about the issue of money. because, in fact, here s what we now hear from the republican party establishment. hey, as soon as she proves she s viable, we ll put some money in ther
the common sense men and women in delaware know that what s coming from washington is not sustainable. and it doesn t matter if you re a republican. it doesn t matter if you re a democrat. and as we go up and down the state and present my proposals, how we re going to take care of the veterans. i believe that treatment of and treatment for should be a number one of our veterans should be a number one priority for congress. and as we meet people across party lines, we re gaining support, bipartisan support. and i d also like to point out that in a state like delaware, we have almost as many independents as we do republicans. and those independents are strongly behind me, 2 to 1 lead behind me in some polls. so i m very confident that with or without the party support we can win in the general election. yes, it ll be hard work. before we were up two points. well, christine, ms. o donnell, we have to leave it there. thanks for sharing time with us this morning. we hope you ll come back.
would have been talking about delaware so much? i think we might want to get a check from the chamber of commerce. anyway, o donnell doesn t have the gop to thank. try sarah palin. michael crowley, senior correspondent for time magazine. and since kate is on the set with us, she gets to go first. michael, we ll get to you in a second. coming into yesterday, there were folks who were saying and perhaps some of us were among them that mike castle s probably going to pull this out. looks like christine o donnell might have been a flash in the pan. but turns out tea party turnout can be a huge factor and looks like that was the case last night. i feel like a broken record. we have to watch about the tea parties, how they re organizing and getting out the vote. but even tea party activists did not think two weeks ago that christine o donnell could win. i think even they were surprised by this win. but also look at new hampshire.
where the action was and will continue to be. just an amazing night. although we have to stop saying the nights are amazing. it seems every time we run up and against and say, oh, this may be an upset. now we should probably start expecting it. except one small problem, the primary season s over. we re going to talk to christine o donnell coming up in a little bit. and one of the questions we ll have to ask her, how does she plan to mend some fences down in delaware? obviously there s some pretty hard feelings. and this is an unprecedented down in florida, remember, rick scott, the man who won the republican nomination for governor down there was sort of an upstart, wasn t expected to win, and then sort of ripped it away from the attorney general down there. and, you know, this is just one of those volatile election years where you re going to see folks come out of the wood work and win races. and what s interesting is, it has been most volatile on the republican side. absolute
could have been a republican victory. look at kentucky, not a sure thing. kentucky, not a sure thing for republicans. no, kentucky should be a safe republican seat. nevada, look, the only reason harry reid is viable is because of sharon engel. and christine o donnell is the democrats wanted to run against. so, again, the democrats have had to sort of pick off these races race by race because things are so tight in a wave year. but this was a huge sort of psychological lift for them last night, if nothing else. should add a cautionary. be careful what you wish for. we ve been surprised all election long. conventional wisdom hasn t had a great track record lately. well, michael crowley in washington. thanks for joining us here this morning. thank you. it was fun. whether you were at home or on the road, you can get the latest political news 24 hours a day on our political ticker. go to cnn.com/ticker. and up next, we re minding your business. consumer reports sticking to it