It's gonna be a tough year. Simply put, we need to do both.

This is a similar problem that Fred Thompson had in his aborted '08 run. It just seemed like, having served six years in the Senate, he no longer had the "fire in the belly" to get back into national politics.

Christie is getting the MSM coverage because the liberals know he can't be elected. But he'll "hog" the spotlight as long as it lasts, and split support with conservative candidate possibles.

So far, from what I've seen of Col. West in TV interviews, he's in the critique mode. He hasn't ruled out a run, but he needs to start shifting to the "what should be" mode. He can also casually suggest support for various conservative House and Senate candidates. Most importantly, he needs to start building his public image.

As to House and Senate races, it's local and state-wide. In my case, our Rep. is Billy Long who already has the TEA Party endorsement. So far I haven't seen any Republican challenger. Sen. Claire McCaskill is the current Dem. Senator who will be up for re-election. She's in trouble, but there's not a lot of information on conservative challengers yet.