I have always been a bit surprised that in Arkansas, which went for McCain by 59-39,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_Arkansas,_2008 Mark Pryor did not even have a major-party opponent in 2008.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_election_in_Arkansas,_2008 "Republicans initially planned to target Pryor in 2008...but they failed to field a prominent candidate to take him on. Their strongest challenger would have been Mike Huckabee, the former 10-year Republican governor, and Huckabee had been encouraged by some Republicans to drop his 2008 presidential bid and run against Pryor. He declined. Meanwhile, Pryor built a $5.5 million war chest. His only opponent was Green Party candidate Rebekeh Kennedy..." *Almanac of American Politics 2010,* p. 117. It is true that in 2008 southern whites were more willing to distinguuish between Obama and local Democratic candidates than they would be a few years later. Still, it seems strange that Pryor was given a free ride. (Also, all three Democratic US Representatives from Arkansas lacked Republican opponents!)
Granted Pryor's war chest and personal popularity in 2008, could Huckabee ride McCain's coattails to victory? If Huckabee is elected, how does it affect his future presidential prospects? (Also, if he won, it would mean the Democrats would not even temporarily have the 60-40 Senate supermajority they got in late 2009 and early 2010, and which they used to get cloture on the ACA. Later, when they lost that supermajority after Scott Brown's election, they were able to get the ACA passed through reconciliation, which only requires a simple majority. But reconciliation would not have been possible if the Senate had not first passed a bill to reconcile with the House version, and they could not have passed that bill if they did not have the sixty votes to defeat cloture. Of course the simplest way to prevent the temporary supermajority would have been to have Coleman defeat Franken in Minnesota, but this is another way.)