Setting the bar low, then jumping it

Slate blogger Mickey Kaus has set an exceptionally low bar for himself in his windmill-tipping battle to embarrass Sen. Barbara Boxer in today's Democratic primary. He's declared that if he wins more than 5 percent of the vote it will be, as LA Weekly reporter Gene Maddaus put it, "a historic repudiation" of the three-term incumbent.

Except that even the most obscure challengers often exceed the 5-percent mark in primary elections. Meaning Kaus will almost certainly succeed in his effort of a historic repudiation, and probably with two or three percentage points to spare. But will anyone notice?