Jon Ralston on how the long and winding road of the 2006 Nevada gubernatorial race eventually ends where it should

Sunday, Oct. 29, 2006 | 7:55 a.m.

With 10 days until the election is decided, with a quarter of those who will vote having lazily cast ballots already, with the media, special interests and partisans seeking their nadir, consider this possibility: Maybe the political system works. Maybe it has done what it is intended to do. Or maybe God was at McCormick & Schmick's on Friday the 13th and decided to level the playing field.

A year and a half ago, Jim Gibbons was a cinch. Six months ago, Dina Titus was only 50-50 to get out of her primary. And after Aug. 15 she was still a pronounced underdog.

Now, no matter what any poll says, this much is true: Titus can win.

And therein lies the awful beauty of this campaign. If almost any other major Democrat but Titus were running against Jim Gibbons, the congressman would be ready for a political autopsy. But state Sen. Titus is so disliked or distrusted by so many voters that Gibbons, who is experiencing what seems like death by a thousand media cuts (have there been a thousand stories on this yet?), could survive.

And the poetic justice of this, the accidental verisimilitude of where we are is inescapable.

On one side, you have a man whose judgment and behavior have been questioned throughout his public life. He has never been able to play well with others in Carson City or D.C., so he never advanced in either legislative body. His public utterances have a narrow amplitude, from rote repetition of rhetorical mush (even plagiarized screeds) to occasional outbursts of idiocy (anyone who is against corporate sponsorships at inaugurals is a "communist" is just one example). He is a perennial backbencher who had few legislative successes, propelled himself to higher office through a populist initiative (Gibbons Tax Restraint) and always has seemed willing to be a follower and not a leader.

So when he followed his campaign guru, Sig Rogich, into the McCormick & Schmick's bar and then showed either horrific judgment or worse, why should anyone be surprised? That he has responded stiffly, with a pasted-on smile and a spousal prop with identical facial expressions clutched to his side, along with that familiar repetition of a prepared statement, why should we be shocked?

On the other side of this race, we have a woman whose nearly two decades in office have been characterized by a motto of "Hurt your enemies badly and hurt your friends even worse." She has not been able to play well with others, either, but for different reasons than Gibbons. He is awkward and aloof; she is nasty and vicious. And she has a lot of trouble hiding it.

Combine that persona, known mostly to insiders, with a Southern accent that grates more than it ingratiates and seems to exacerbate her abrasiveness and snideness. And add in a Gibbons campaign that has effectively portrayed her as a liberal tax and spender and soft on immigration (well, one out of two is true, and they hope you ignore Gibbons' illegal nanny problem) and you have a woman who is despised or feared by anywhere from a third to half the electorate. So why should we raise an eyebrow that Gibbons has a chance to survive?

Some of this will be affected by the continuing and sickening performance of the media, which will wallpaper this story while leaving bare any analysis of the candidates' voting records (Is Titus really that liberal? Is Gibbons really an immigration hawk?) and trading steak for sizzle. Months have been squandered with thin stories about campaign contribution violations and other piffle, so now voters are left with this wretched tale.

The bloggers generally have earned their lack of credibility and readership, except by folks in their pajamas and tin foil caps. The partisans have been pathetic, especially the Republicans who have defamed Gibbons' accuser and her lawyer and declared tenuous political ties as facts. And the special interests have been sanctimonious pawns, from women's rights advocates to drunken driving opponents who have spouted off without the slightest knowledge of what really happened that evening.

So even though I should also be outraged that the governor's race will be decided by this still-murky Friday the 13th story, I'm not. With the excessive media coverage, partisan pounding and special-interest spinning, these candidates are just where they should be because of who they really are.