Mark Kirk's Incredible Deficit

As bad as the Democrats' enthusiasm problems are around the country, they may actually be worse in President Obama's home state of Illinois, where the electorate is now leaning a net 17 percentage points more Republican than it did election day 2008, according to Public Policy Polling. Yet despite this massive GOP skew, the Republicans' Senate candidate in the state is still trailing:

In a race pitting two of the weakest Senate candidates in the country Alexi Giannoulias continues to hold a small lead over Mark Kirk, 37-35, with Green Party candidate LeAlan Jones pulling 9%. Voters in the heavily Democratic state it seems would narrowly prefer a Democratic candidate they don't like to a Republican candidate they don't like.

As PPP tweeted on the poll, "You can't win as a Republican in Illinois without decent Dem support and Kirk's at 5% with them." So even if Democrat Alexi Giannoulias isn't wowing the electorate -- and he's not, considering his upside-down 26 percent favorable/42 percent unfavorable rating -- Kirk's incessant missteps and sheer unlikeability (serially exaggerating one's records isn't the most endearing activity) may just keep this seat blue come November.