Forget the tea party, what about the crumpets?

Christine O'Donnell, Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann

Everybody knows some poor fool who married a woman like Christine O'Donnell or Michele Bachmann

By Gene Lyons
Salon.com

To the connoisseur of American political theater, the most entertaining aspect of the 2010 election season has been the rise of the right-wing cuties -- political celebrities whose main qualification is looking terrific on television. From where I sit, in a comfortable chair in front of the tube, the GOP Cupcake Factor has enlivened an otherwise dreary campaign season.

To put it another way: If you don't love Christine O'Donnell, you don't love America. The Republican Senate nominee from Delaware exemplifies a basic truth about politics in the age of cable television: An attractive woman with a glib demeanor and a telegenic smile almost can't be too crazy.

Everybody knows some poor fool who married a woman like that. Other women befriend them, because they tell such interesting stories. After the stories turn out to be big lies, people usually tiptoe away. On television, however, that's never necessary.

A man who'd made half the screwball pronouncements O'Donnell's emitted in her career as a talk show guest -- virtually the only job she's ever had -- would be seen as dangerously unhinged (unless his name was Newt Gingrich, an obvious exception). Outside Delaware, O'Donnell appears destined to be seen mainly as a TV performer, like Sarah Palin and the third member of the Republican cute caucus, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann.

(More here.)