Based on Deceit

Here is a very charitable interpretation of how Claire McCaskill has come to run close to Jim Talent in Missouri's Senate race.

The key is this:

By running relentlessly toward the center, by being nearly as critical of much Democratic orthodoxy as she is of Republican lunacy, she has held her ground despite a 3:1 fund-raising disadvantage.

The question is (1) whether that criticism of Democratic orthodoxy is genuine -- there's good reason to believe that it's not -- and (2) whether it will matter if McCaskill would actually make it to Washington. Does anyone really think that she has the power -- and the interest -- to buck a Democratic establishment dominated by people like John Kerry, Harry Reid and Hillary Clinton?

Gateway Pundit doesn't believe that McCaskill's gambit will succeed, offering 7 good reasons that Talent's going to walk away the victor.