UNDER PRESSURE: Coons Shifts on Tax Cuts for Wealthy: Extend Them All. “Chris Coons changed his previous position on the Bush era tax cuts this morning telling me that he would support extending all of the Bush era tax cuts for everyone for ‘several years.'”

UPDATE: Reader M.L. Johnson writes: “If nothing else, O’Donnell has pulled Coons to the right on this issue. Maybe any generic Tea Partier could have done the same. The weight of the electorate is tilting the playing field, just like it’s supposed to. I just hope it stays tilted.”

And reader Chris Woods writes: “Do you suppose that all the folks bellyaching about the O’Donnell primary win can see it as something other than Quixotic now? Had the Tea Party gone along with the Republican establishment whichever candidate that won would have been a ‘no’ vote for extending the Bush tax cuts. By standing in O’Donnell for Castle the Democrat has been forced to flip. No such flip would have occurred with Castle as the opposition. Castle and Coons would more likely have found themselves in substantial agreement on the matter. As I see it the O’Donnell candidacy — even if it be doomed — has had more policy import than Castle’s ever would have.”

Plus, DaTechGuy wonders: If O’Donnell is such a sure loser, why is Coons flip-flopping all of a sudden? “The MSM has been making fun of Christine O’Donnell’s debate performances for the last three days. Yet this morning, after Delaware voters saw those same debates that the MSM laughed at it is Chris Coons NOT Christine O’Donnell who feels compelled to change positions.” It’s after voters saw the debates. It’s also after Coons saw his tracking polls . . . .

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Dean Gay quotes Milton Friedman: “It’s nice to elect the right people, but that isn’t the way you solve things. The way you solve things is by making it politically profitable for the wrong people to do the right things.” Heh. Indeed.