How the Prudent Wing of the Ruling Class Party (i.e., the Democrats) Ought to Run Their Campaigns

I think Krugman has a sound analysis of this one:

[O]ne of the surprises of [the election] is that Harry Reid, supposedly a completely hopeless case, is still Senator.

How did that happen? Reid did something Democrats almost never do: instead of apologizing for his party, he ran against a person with a habit of making crazy statements by hitting hard, again and again, with ads calling her a crazy person. It was very rude and uncivil. And it worked.

And Krugman's observations here suggest that Obama has learned nothing.  Obama's fatal character flaw is that he really  does want to "get along" with everyone, instead of taking the Reid approach, which is the only morally defensible one in this political environment.