I would have titled it differently, but I have a piece up at the Politico, at their request, about the election.

Earlier today, Republican leaders said they were going to use the election as justification to themselves that voters were rejecting the tea party in favor of guys who look and think like Washington Republicans. There’s just one problem — running as “we’re not Barack Obama” is not a rejection of conservatives.

In fact, as the Weekly Standard noted, the GOP ad buys of late have been heavy on conservative issues:

1. Obamacare (nearly 12,000 ads)
2. Budget/Government Spending (nearly 9,000 ads)
3. Energy/Environment (nearly 7,000 ads)
4. Jobs/Unemployment (more than 6,000 ads)
5. Immigration (nearly 5,000 ads)

But the Republican Leadership in DC, itself, wants to run as far away as possible from conservatives. My point in the Politico is that the GOP and its consultants have played it very safe, tried their best to avoid issues, run as the anti-Obama party, and now wants that as a mandate to reject conservatives.

It does not work that way. As I noted

Republicans will do well on Election Day. The president’s job approval has cratered. The GOP outperforms the President on a host of issues from the economy to handling terror threats. But Washington’s Republican establishment made a conscious decision to find candidates who looked and sounded more like them and less like the Americans whose votes they need. They have provided no alternative and took far longer to close the deal with voters than they should have. When the polls close on Tuesday, Republicans will not so much have won as Democrats will have lost.

But I’ll take that.