Red State
Incumbent Democrats are desperate — increasingly aware the public’s taste for their brand of change has waned. Some, in generally conservative districts and states, are reaching for the mantle of the moderate; others, like those in reliably Democratic areas, have not yet begun backsliding on the president on the issues of health care reform and spending.
But all — no matter how comfortable their lead in polls and campaign funds — have gone to great lengths to portray their GOP challengers as wildly out of the mainstream: We’re bad, but they’re downright crazy.