A Most Forgettable Election

Asked recently whether he owed the voters of Kansas an answer about which party he'd support, Orman non-answered, "I sort of reject the premise of that question. ... I think it's an opportunity for Kansas to define the agenda in the United States Senate."

This is "Let's Make a Deal" politics, with voters relegated to guessing what's behind door No. 3.

And Orman isn't the only Monty Hall running. In South Dakota, former Republican Sen. Larry Pressler, running as an independent for his old job, is similarly coy. He has announced that "I don't agree with Obama on very many things" and told The Hill newspaper he would be a "friend of Obama" in the Senate and had voted for the president twice."

I'm fine with running for office as an independent -- there's enough orthodoxy in both parties to make your head explode -- but that's different than running as a cipher. The ideological chasm between the two parties has grown so large that someone with fixed political convictions -- other than that he should wield maximum influence -- can't plausibly waver between the two.

Not that the major party candidates are covering themselves with glory this cycle. The Republican strategy boils down to yoking your Democratic opponent as tightly as possible to Obama. The champion may be North Carolina Republican Thom Tillis, who managed, in the course of an hour-long debate with incumbent Kay Hagan, to cram in 10 references to her voting with Obama 96 percent of the time.

In a debate last week in Louisiana, Republican Bill Cassidy said of incumbent Sen. Mary Landrieu, "She represents Barack Obama, I represent you."

The Democratic response is essentially: Barack who? Thus Landrieu's retort: "While President Obama is not on the ballot, the future of Louisiana is."

Perhaps campaigns are like childbirth: There is a natural human tendency to forget the nonsense (in the case of elections) or the pain (in the case of both elections and childbirth). But this one may take longer than the usual two years to forget.

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Ruth Marcus' email address is ruthmarcus@washpost.com.