Mourdock

Can the Tea Party beat Dick Lugar? Yes, it's quite possible, says Allysia Finley, a Wall Street Journal editorial writer and assistant editor of OpinionJournal.com

No doubt you've noticed the endorsements: the Club for Growth for Richard Mourdock; the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for Richard Lugar. There is an epic battle going on, and Indiana is right in the middle of it:

Big business and the Tea Party are at swords' points once again, with GOP Senate primaries for the second straight election becoming proxy battles in the war over the soul of the Republican Party.

Reaction from all over to the Lugar-Mourdock debate. Real Clear Politics notes the "No Sparks Fly" civility of the encounter.

Something to think about as we wait for the single Lugar-Mourdock debate tonight (7-8 p.m., check your listings but I do know it will be on WANE):

The Tea Party has lost a number of its top election targets this year, leaving Sen. Dick Lugar (R-Ind.) to emerge as public enemy No. 1 for national conservative groups — and poll numbers suggest they could get their man.

This Associated Press article goes into all the reasons Sen. Richard Lugar is being challenged from the right in his party and why some see him and Orrin Hatch, the Tea Party's other main target this year, as "old bulls out of touch with today's conservatives." I think this gets to the heart of it:

In politics, it matters when you peak. Richard Mourdock appears to be doing just fine in that regard:

According to two recent polls, Lugar leads Mourdock by only 6 points, 45 percent to 39 percent, among Indiana primary voters, despite the fact that the incumbent senator has a big financial advantage and universal name ID among Hoosiers.

"Can't see the forest for the trees" political analysis -- here's Franklin College's journalism directorJohn Krull  on the Lugar-Mourdock race:

For the "With friends like these . . ." file:

Couple of interesting items elsewhere in the Indiana blogosphere. The propsoal on creationism died in the House after passing the Senate, and Doug at Masson's Blog notes that the Associated Press continues to misreport the story thusly: "A bill that would have specifically allowed Indiana’s public schools to teach creationism alongside evolution in science classes has been shelved by the leader of the Indiana House of Representatives."