The problem, as Podhoretz correctly writes, is that in the present, O’Donnell has shown “very little seriousness of purpose.” Where I disagree with Podhoretz is when he writes that the problem is not the Tea Party or her ideas, but her path to the spotlight. The fact is, as the MSM continually point out, she was and is the Tea Party favorite. So many of this new movement’s activists seem to be saying: “We are against candidates of both parties who don’t speak for us, who are not fiscally responsible or really conservative, or in the case of some Republicans, are so-called RINOS.” Therefore they have got behind candidates like O’Donnell, despite solid evidence of her inability to be elected…

Now consider today’s Republican Party. At a moment when it is poised to present meaningful conservative alternatives to the stale bromides of a bankrupt liberalism, far right activists who demand ideological purity and rigidity on all issues dominate the activist base, and seemingly are succeeding in producing a conservatism that is both not electable and far removed from appealing to the disappointments that are driving so many away from the Democratic Party. The current situation does not prove that Beinart is correct when he says that America is a “center-left” nation. It is clearly a center-right nation, but concentrate on the word “center.” We are not a far-right nation, and candidates of that caliber will eventually push those who could be allies in defeating the left smack into the hands of our opponents.