Tea Party overreach? The poster girl of the Tea Party right failed to win election last night in the game changer that wasn't quite.

"It gave me no pleasure to say that she was unlikely to win," said former GOP strategist Karl Rove following O'Donnell's loss to Democrat Chris Coons. “But this again provides a lesson. This is a candidate who was right on the issues but who had mishandled a series of questions brought up by the press.”

O'Donnell's comments about witchcraft ultimately defined her, Rove believes, and now her loss (and Sharon Angle's) show the limitations of the Tea Party's reach and its glaring lack of political experience.

One person who will rue O'Donnell's fall is Sarah Palin. Although Palin never campaigned for Christine O’Donnell, she did endorse her in the GOP primary. Tonight she'll have to answer some awkward questions about that rather hasty decision.

Giving away a senate seat will be hard to explain to Palin's GOP donors.