Chamblis Wins!

Palin's high risk campaigning pays off for all of us. WM Newly reelected Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) credited Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin with firing up his base and allowing him to cruise to a victory over Democrat Jim Martin. “Sarah Palin came in on the last day, did a fly-around and, man, she was dynamite,” Chambliss told Fox News on Wednesday. “We packed the houses everywhere we went. And it really did allow us to peak and get our base fired up.” Chambliss beat Martin by three points on Nov. 4 but did not reach 50 percent of the vote, making a runoff necessary. However, the incumbent easily beat his challenger Tuesday, more than quadrupling his margin of victory, and in the process kept Democrats from reaching a filibuster-proof Senate majority. Chambliss heaped praise on Palin, saying she has a “great future” in the GOP. “I can’t overstate the impact she had down here. All these folks did a great job coming in,” he said, referring to former presidential candidates Mike Huckabee and Rudy Giuliani. “They allow you [to] add momentum to where we were in the campaign. But when she walks in a room, folks just explode.” Here is a sister article: http://www.usnews.com/blogs/barone/2008/12/03/chamblisss-win-in-georgia-shows-obamas-diminishing-coattails.html Chambliss's victory over Jim Martin means that the Democrats will not get 60 seats in the Senate, even if Al Franken somehow manages to overcome Norm Coleman's circa 300-vote lead in the Minnesota recount. Franken's only apparent recourse is to the courts or to the full Senate; I doubt he'll get anywhere in the courts, and I doubt that Barack Obama will want the Democrats to take on a bruising partisan fight to get a 59th seat in the Senate (though labor leaders, eager to pass the card check bill and knowing that Arlen Specter voted to cut off the filibuster against it in the outgoing Congress, may press for that). In short, Chambiss's victory might have also saved Norm Coleman...