Meet America's Worst 2012 Candidate

The good news for long-shot Senate candidate Mark Clayton is that the Washington Post deems his run worthy of a lengthy feature story. The bad news is that the piece by David A. Fahrenthold concludes that Clayton—a Democrat challenging GOP incumbent Bob Corker in Tennessee—is probably "America's worst candidate" and the "living personification of rock bottom" for state Democrats.

Why? Start with the campaign war chest of $278, the grand total of one campaign sign, and the lack of a campaign headquarters or, in fact, actual campaign events. All of that might be kind of charming if not for Clayton's links to an anti-gay hate group and his tendency to spew weird conspiracy theories. His party has disavowed him, and the Post explains that he won the primary mainly because the ballot was in alphabetical order. Click for the full story on Democrats' plunging fortunes in the state. (More Mark Clayton stories.)