I'm not disagreeing with you, for the most part. The freer the market the better, IMO. I just hate it when people who have economic views similar to mine fall into the same trap that we often accuse our socialist counterparts of: thinking from an ivory tower (and that's what it looked like at first).
The properly vetted (that was just for you, Magox ) candidates running on the Republican ticket weren't talking about so-called "social issues." They were talking about the one thing people (read: all people) needed to hear them talk about. That being said, this sort of thing doesn't surprise me.
In related news, a California district elects a dead woman to office.
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/11/03/deceased-candidate-wins-state-senate-seat-in-california/
CNN and Fox both project Coons defeating O'Donnell and Rubio defeating Crist/Meek.
As of now, Fox has Blumenthal defeating McMahon. Nothing from CNN on that yet.
I always laugh at warnings like this. There have been what, exactly zero cases of this sort of thing actually happening? Yet, every year, we see the PSA's in newspapers and on TV regarding "Halloween sadism."