Although I'm not entirely supportive of the "who runs gov" site, the Post does have a great deal of election information in easily accessible form, that is worth a look. Owing to the length of addresses, I can't review any of it here, but take a look around the Post's election news features anyway.
One thing that did stand out for me, is that the Post is keeping track of who Sarah Palin has supported, and whether they've won their elections. Since their graphics don't show whether they were winners before or after her nominations, you have to click on each little individual figure to find out. And then you'll find that some were, indeed, supported by her only after winning. But although many also lost, the overwhelming majority of candidates who did receive her blessing, did subsequently win.
What does this mean? It's not at all clear whether she was just picking clear winners beforehand, or whether her influence swung the vote on the day. But whichever, she's doing a better than average job of being on the right side as well as the Right.
The thing is, the Post isn't following any other politician in this way. We're not seeing who won or lost after being given support by Bill Clinton, say. No, the Post wants us to believe there's something especially powerful about the Palin Effect. And how scary is that?
