If New Hampshire Senator Kelly Ayotte is any indication, vulnerable Republican incumbents are getting closer to being focused on their own self-preservation in November. “I am the one candidate that will stand up to whomever is in the White House,” she told CNN on Tuesday amid assurances that her promise to vote for the GOP nominee is no endorsement. It’s a contradictory message that nevertheless dovetails with the embattled senator’s advertising, in which she touts herself as an aisle-crosser who is unafraid to oppose her party when she thinks it’s in the wrong. And there can be little doubt that the popular New Hampshire Republican’s constituents in the Granite State believe the GOP erred greatly by nominating Donald Trump to the presidency.

. . .