The fact that Joe Miller finds himself 13,000 votes plus behind Murkowski as a write in candidate is a tribute to a disastrously run campaign.To possibly lose an unloseable seat in a safe Republican state takes an effort of uncommon incompetence.
The list of shoot yourself in the foot errors is a long one. Either tweeting yourself or, incredibly giving your "tweeting privileges" to junior staffers (twice) to shoot their mouth off about "measuring the curtains" is amateurish in commission, and showed hubris and arrogance in regards to the message of the tweets, which were grist to the opposition in creating a poor image for Miller.
Having uncontrolled support staff handcuff a journalist is, good grief, unforgivable and reinforced the image of arrogance. But the single biggest contribution to Miller's campaign collapse was his treatment of the people who had done so much, in fact everything, to give him the nomination.
Miller was a rank outsider until Todd Palin signalled the Palin's support by attending a primary campaign for him. Sarah Palin's subsequent endorsement was, as Miller acknowledged and was plain to everyone, the only reason he defeated a sitting two term senator.
And how did Miller pay back Sarah? By refusing to straightforwardly answer the simple question "do you think Palin is qualified to be president?" And then to compound what appeared to all a betrayal of the person who made him what he was by answering, when questioned again, by saying that "of course she is qualified on a constitutional basis". Anyone native born and over 35 is so qualified, so his equivocation showed a lack of character which reflected terribly on him. It is an absolute mystery what Miller would have had to gain by not stating his total support for Palin.
When one of his staff,presumably, leaked Todd Palin's totally justified complaint about Miller's shilly shallying and the hurt the Palin's felt that would have reinforced the amateurishness of Miller's campaign and their total lack of judgement and shown dissension in his camp and between him and the Palin's "This is what we have to deal with" he is quoted as saying in response to Todd Palin's rightfully aggrieved email.
The final straw for Alaskan voters must have been when Miller hid his ethics problems which were only forced out of him by a late court ruling. And what was the big deal, that he had tried to juice an online result? If he had addressed this minor matter at the start of the campaign it would have been a one day wonder, if that. But by covering it up it made the offence look worse than it was and reinforced, once again, the image of untrustworthiness.
Miller may somehow pull this election out but even if he does he will be know as the loser who won through the courts or through voters mistakes with their ballots. Certainly any long term future is very much in doubt should he win, and if he loses then he will fade into the obscurity he came from, and deserves, for his treatment of the Palin's. He has, to further compound matters, made a Democratic non-entity, McAdams into someone of note by his poor campaign.
One thing is certain, by his actions, amateurishness and poor treatment of the people who assisted him to the doors of success, which he failed to open, there can be no reflection whatsoever on Sarah Palin. It is his loss so far, not hers.
Similarly there is also no reflection on Palin by O'Donnell's self-destructive campaign. The Haley's and Ayotte's and others who conducted professional campaigns and were loyal are Palin's true testament from election night. The Palin's support to the end for Miller's campaign is also a tribute to the heights of their character.
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