After a debate in which the moderator from the Denver Post called [mc_name name=’Sen. Mark Udall (D-CO)’ chamber=’senate’ mcid=’U000038′ ] “Mark Uterus“, a Fox News Poll with [mc_name name=’Rep. Cory Gardner (R-CO)’ chamber=’house’ mcid=’G000562′ ] in the lead by 6 points, and the Real Clear Politics (RCP) average showing Gardner with a 1.3% lead, the last thing that the Udall campaign wanted to deal with today is the news that Cory Gardner had out-raised the incumbent Democrat in the third quarter.

Gardner raised a total of $4.3 million to Udall’s $4 million. While Chris Harris, Udall’s Communications Manager, told the Denver Post’s Lynn Bartels, who happens to be the moderator who called Udall “Mark Uterus”, that Gardner is just making up ground that Udall already covered early in the campaign, the fact that so much money flowed to the surging Gardner, just weeks before ballots are to hit mailboxes, can’t be comforting.

I attended the infamous “Mark Uterus” debate and was disappointed in the way the audience reacted to Rep. Gardner. While Gardner was nice, upbeat, and positive, even when he was attacking Udall’s record, the audience, filled with abortion activists in their mid fifties, couldn’t manage to act like adults. Each time Gardner spoke, audible sighs, guffaws, and even mocking laughter came forth from the left wing activists among the crowd.

The “War On Women” rhetoric, which has failed to shift the polls in Udall’s favor despite a barrage of summer political commercial meant to portray Gardner as an extremist, was in full bloom at the Denver Post debate. But as I have noted before, this sort of rhetoric is really mere projection meant to obscure one’s own extreme stances.

One explicit example of this was Udall’s support for the rather extreme position of allowing late term, even partial birth, abortions. Of course, this position is held by a small fringe of the American public, around 10%. Clearly Udall is a part of the extremist fringe on the issue of abortion, this is why he and his campaign have tried so hard to make the position of Gardner an issue.

Of course, convincing the general public that being able to purchase birth control over the counter with no government involvement is an extreme position is no easy task. Which might explain why the Udall campaign is failing so miserably at it.

Udall has failed to poll above the mid 40’s this entire election cycle, Gardner’s trend line has been consistently moving in the right direction ever since the shift to likely voter models. In just the last two weeks, Gardner, and his beaming smile, have taken the lead and are widening the gap.

The Lord continues to smile upon Cory Gardner.

Sen. Mark Udall rose to the Senate on the coattails of a popular Barack Obama in 2008. This year, Udall has no such advantage, instead he must try to distance himself from a President, whom he has supported 99% of the time with his votes, who is wildly unpopular and recently made clear that it will be his policies were on the ballot.

At this point, if Cory Gardner isn’t a Senator after the election, I will be a bit surprised.