Whoever's supposed to be watching out for Republican Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell might oughta rethink this business about debating Democrat Chris Coons. AP reports from an exchange today in Wilmington, Delaware:

"Where in the Constitution is the separation of church and state?" O'Donnell asked him.

When Coons responded that the First Amendment bars Congress from making laws respecting the establishment of religion, O'Donnell asked: "You're telling me that's in the First Amendment?"

AP reports that you could hear the crowd gasp. Or maybe it's all in the ear of the beholder. From a WDEL blog commenter identifying himself as Earl Grey:

"I think that Christine did very well and held her ground while debating with her opponent. She has moxie.

"Chris Coon [sic] has continued to appear like a condescending know-it-all."

(Thanks to Political Carnival for the video.)

You can tell the local paper's trying to be objective when they start dropping in "sic," without further comment, for factual gaffes. Here's the Wilmington News-Journal on Delaware Republican Christine O'Donnell talking Afghanistan in a Senate debate last night:

"Well, if you remember, when we were fighting the Soviets [sic] over there in Afghanistan in the '80s and '90s, we did not finish the job. So now we have a responsibility to finish the job."

A campaign spokesman later filled in the blank she drew when asked to name a Supreme Court decision she disagreed with -- it's Kelo vs. City of New London, which ruled that local government can seize private property for economic development.

Campaign manager Matt Moran, the guy who called us classless and kicked us out of O'Donnell HQ, had this to say in a press release:

"Christine O'Donnell is a working class person who best represents the people of Delaware as opposed to her opponent, an Ivy League graduate who has a record of supporting major tax increases and excessive spending."

We're not quite up to class warfare in this one, but considering that O'Donnell also went after Democrat Chris Coons for being an heir to the considerable Goretex fortune, we're getting closer.

It's on, for 7:30 tonight. Ginger Gibson of the Wilmington News-Journal reports:

Coons has been preparing for the debate over the past few weeks, spokesman Daniel McElhatton said. He practiced debating a female staffer in anticipation of facing off with O'Donnell.

"We're doing the traditional debate prep," McElhatton said. "Chris is knowledgeable on the issues."

O'Donnell's campaign did not respond to inquiries about her preparations.

So much for all that local media O'Donnell promised. The debate's on national TV.

Christine O'Donnell continued trying to raise money on us, sending out a fundraiser just today that casts us as supporters of her Democratic opponent for Senate from Delaware, Chris Coons. O'Donnell writes:

Last Thursday, [Coons] brought former SNL writer Al Franken, aka Senator Stuart Smalley, to Delaware so they could hit the campaign trail together. It looks as if they wrote some jokes together because in his new TV ad, our opponent says that he will bring "new responsible leadership to Washington." Even fellow NBC employees Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann are in on the joke, they love our opponent.

For the record, what we love is that Chris Coons talked to us in Delaware. He outlined his positions. He answered our questions. Ms. O'Donnell, we'd still very much like to talk to you, too, even though your campaign staff told us we're unacceptable. Check your messages, OK, because we're in there again today.

We found the Chris Coons' supporters, and Chris Coons. Now we just need to find Christine O'Donnell and her supporters. We're looking. The official vote total suggests they're here.

If you know one, if you are one, drop us a line.

Our first stop today in Delaware today is a Chris Coons gig. The Democratic candidate for Senate talked to 100 or so folks at the Mid County Senior Senior, right in his home turf. While he talked about Social Security and Medicare and helping seniors, a few of them followed their own interests on the stage behind them.

After the interview with Rachel Maddow, the candidate headed out again into the drizzly day, shaking hands, talking to reporters. Whatever else retail politics may be, it's certainly not glamorous.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

In this year of extremist anti-choice Republican candidates, conservatives in Colorado have found a measure that might go too far, even for them. The proposed Amendment 62 would add this language to the constitution: "Person defined. As used in sections 3, 6, and 25 of Article II of the state constitution, the term "person" shall apply to every human being from the beginning of the biological development of that human being. It's enough that GOP Senate candidate Ken Buck, who would force women to bear their rapist's babies and those of their relatives, too, has backed away from supporting it.

The Fetal Personhood Amendment, as it's known, would categorize fertilized human eggs as people. It gives the zygote the same
rights as those of us who are out in the world and moving around. "To my fellow @Maddow watchers- if a zygote has the same rights as us, can they marry each other?" @ims tweets. "Wait. Not everyone can do that. Never mind." And from Geoff Hinton on Facebook: "If I'm considered a human being at the begining of biological development, does that mean my birthday changes to November, not August?"

And that's not all. According to Leslie Hanks, one of Amendment 62's authors, it would make certain forms of the pill and other contraceptive devices illegal. "Many of the oral contraceptives have an action that makes the womb inhospitable to a developing embryo and, hence, the new living, growing baby is prevented from residing where his or her creator intended until birth."

"I don't care that these folks call themselves conservatives," Rachel Maddow said on the show last night. "If this is limited government, I'm the queen of England. This is really, really, really, really, really, really big government."

Just for kicks, check out Delaware's Democratic Senate candidate on abortion. Chris Coons lists reproductive rights among his signature issue. The site says: "Chris believes that decisions about a woman's health, including issues surrounding pregnancy, should be left to her and her doctor. . . .Chris supports public funding of all reproductive health services for women who depend on the federal government for their health care."

We're curious about candidates in your part of the country -- are any of them taking a strong stand like that for abortion rights? Let us know in the comments, please.

We'll have to wait until mid-October to see where the money's coming from, but Republican Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell says she's raising a ton of it. According to her donations-and-only-donations website, O'Donnell has pulled in more than $1.375 million since winning the Delaware primary on Tuesday.

Her Democratic opponent, Chris Coons, had $944,000 on hand as of late August. O'Donnell had just over $20,000, having raised only $259,000 since January 2009. Most of that money came from out-of-state contributors.

Over at the Huffington Post, Sam Stein looks at reports that Coons has raised a little money since Tuesday himself -- really, a little -- and calls it even. O'Donnell is the national story now, whether it helps or hurts her with the people in Delaware who'll ultimately cast a ballot. "[T]he going bet is that no amount of money can make O'Donnell palatable to general election voters," Stein writes. We'll see.

Technically, yes, Christine O'Donnell belongs to Delaware. She's the new Republican candidate for Senate from Delaware, chosen by voters in Delaware's Republican primary. But if you look at her campaign contributions, you'll see that roughly 85 percent of her money came from out-of-state.

The next thing you'll notice, as you look at the charts below, is that O'Donnell pulled off her victory with very little money. Including meager contributions from political committees, her finance reports show that she raised just $259,101 from January 2009 until now. Individuals in Delaware gave her just over $18,000.

Now wonder a Mike Castle aide told Politico yesterday, "Out of state support was enough to pull her through yesterday so she can rely on it through November."

After the jump, charts on Republican Mike Castle and the Democratic candidate for Senate, Mike Coons.

(A big, big thanks to our in-house astrophysicist Summer Ash for wrangling the data.)

Republican Mike Castle's finance reports show:

Democrat Chris Coons's finance reports show:

And finally, the overall picture:

(Click to enlarge.)

It's not often that you see an attractive, smiling portrait of an opponent leading a candidate's website. Then again, it's not often that you get a gift from the political gods on the scale of the one Tea Partiers just gave Chris Coons, the Democrat running for Senate from Delaware whom Lawrence O'Donnell called last night's "luckiest man in American politics."

Coons sounds just delighted:

With Christine O'Donnell, we face an ideology rather than a record. One of Sarah Palin's newest "Mama Grizzlies," O'Donnell will fight to roll back a woman's right to choose and lead the charge against stem-cell research, falsely claiming that this ground breaking research exploits women. She has a record of supporting discrimination against gays and lesbians, and pressing for public schools to teach creationism.