In a week filled with reports of Democratic damage control, from abandoning Robin Carnahan in Missouri to defending a formerly safe seat in Massachusetts, this is the sweetest damage control of all. So assured is the GOP tsunami, it seems, that even the eminence grise of Hopenchange ’08 feels obliged to set the bar as high as he possibly can so that he’ll have some sort of “moral victory” to wheeze about on November 3.

Trying to reshape expectations for the midterm elections, David Plouffe said Thursday that the Republicans should be expected to make a full sweep of Congress – and key gubernatorial races – given the environmental advantages they have. Anything less, he said, should be seen as a disgrace.

“By their definition, success is winning back the House, winning back the Senate and winning every major governor’s race,” Plouffe, Obama’s 2008 campaign manager, said. “When you’ve got winds this strong in your favor, that’s the kind of election you need to have – or it should be considered a colossal failure.”

If they win back the House and every major governor’s race but net “only” nine Senate seats instead of the 11 they need for control, will that be deemed a qualified failure? I’ve got a krazy hunch that it will! The burning question: What happens if the GOP actually does win back both chambers? What’ll the day-after Plouffe spin be then? Granted, there’ll be plenty of droning about how The One’s being unfairly punished for the terrible economy he inherited blah blah; anything beyond that, though? A few people were speculating this morning on Twitter that Democrats will seize on Coons’s likely win in Delaware as some sort of wholesale repudiation of the tea-party agenda. Probably right, although I wonder if they’d need Sharron Angle and/or Joe Miller to lose also in order to make a full-blown capital-N Narrative out of it. No worries — Plouffe will think of something. And if all else fails, they can always go the TNR route and start searching for silver linings in having a Republican-run Congress.

In the meantime, via Radio Equalizer, let’s enjoy yet another example of a prominent Democrat informing the lefty base that it’s a terrible, terrible disappointment to him.