? that a big win on Election Day would signal the electorate?s shift toward illiberal collectivist policies, perhaps they should study the case of Travis Childers.

He?s the Mississippi Democrat who has won a congressional election and appears headed toward re-election because he runs against the issues that motivate his party?s base. At least that?s the way TIME tells the story:

He may be a Democrat, but he’s a pro-gun, pro-life, pro-drilling Blue Dog Democrat who rarely mentions House Speaker Nancy Pelosi except to assure voters that she doesn’t tell him what to do. And for all his folksy chatter, he won’t even say whether he’s voting for Obama, shifting to evasive blather about fiercely independent-minded Mississippians who don’t want their Congressman to tell them how to vote. John McCain will win the First District easily, and Childers can’t win without McCain voters, but he also needs an enthusiastic turnout from blacks, who make up more than a quarter of the electorate. “This is still a conservative Republican district, and that’s why Travis is running away from his own party,” [Republican opponent Greg] Davis complains. “When he’s home, he sounds like a Republican. But he’s not.”

You don?t have to travel to Mississippi to find evidence of this electoral sleight-of-hand. Veteran N.C. Democratic strategist Gary Pearce described it quite well back in the summer.