esquire.com – Kelly Ayotte, the Talleyrand of Tuftenboro, thought she had this Senate gig knocked. She had attached herself to John McCain and Lindsey Graham as the third member of the Freedom Bombs Caucus in the upper chamber, thereby gaining for herself some foreign policy cred that would allow her to rise above her previous image as a jumped-up state pol and stay in the Senate for as long as she wanted to stay, or until someone asked her to be vice president, whichever came first.

Today, though, time and odd circumstance have put her in a life-and-death re-election campaign, likely against Democratic Governor Maggie Hassan. At the same time, time and extremely odd circumstance have put her in a party that is in the process of nominating for president a vulgar talking yam. What’s a Metternich of Manchester to do? Well, call WMUR and do some enthusiastic tap-dancing, I guess.