The 2012 U.S. Senate Election in Indiana Comes to an End

Joe Donnelly is the Senator-elect from Indiana. This was to be expected after Mourdock's screw-up where he tried to describe his philosophy on abortion. Those comments truly decided this race. It was a close contest up until late October but the race ended in a comfortable 5-point margin victory for Joe Donnelly when Mourdock who had been cast as an extremist by the Donnelly campaign confirmed it in front of the national and state media within two weeks of Election Day.

Mourdock gave a fairly bad concession speech on election night. The congratulations to his opponent were tame and felt forced. As he got that out of the way, he proceeded to explain how the results of the elections across the country made him fear for the future of the country. Mourdock then cried as he explained how he was attacked for standing up for his principles and he ended the speech by doubling down on his philosophy on abortion.

There is no doubt that Mourdock had to suffer harsher criticism than most candidates (and arguably the most of any candidate) in 2012. It's also true that Mourdock holds a position on abortion that many top Republicans share and which they have not been scolded for. It's also fair to say that Mourdock's comments were misconstrued to sound more extreme than they actually were. Getting attacked for saying incredibly unpopular and extreme things is the nature of politics though. Mourdock's campaign did not shy away from attacking the principles (or as he preferred to phrase it; the lack of them) of his opponents in the primary and the general election so he hardly stood above anyone else in this race.

It's a bad way for a bad candidate to end his campaign. Gracious losers respect the will of the voters by paying respects to the winner and bringing together voters from both sides behind their elected representative. A sore loser diminishes the validity of the victory by expressing fears for the future and by faulting the voters for having fallen for ads and attacks. Mitt Romney gave a classy concession speech; he congratulated the President, wished him well, noted how the country chose a different vision to his and urged people to come together to solve the problems facing the nation. Richard Mourdock congratulated his opponent at the start of the speech but went on to pity himself and imply that something awfully wrong was about to befall the country.

Dick Lugar was criticized for being out of touch with Hoosiers. That may well be true. I couldn't say, as I haven't fully explored the decades of legislative service he leaves behind himself but I know for sure that Mourdock's concession speech, as well as his campaign and his legislative philosophy of hyperpartisanship was out-of-touch with Indiana and the country at large.

Hoosiers made their choice, and they chose shameless centrism over out-of-touch, out-of-wack extremism.