The AP compares Blanch Lincoln vs challenger Bill Halter race to the 1972 contest between John L. McClellan and challenger David Pryor and J. William Fulbright and challenger Dale Bumpers in 1974. The winners were McClellan and Bumpers. That is, the challenger won one and lost the other. This kind of analogy is not very helpful, I think.

What I remember most clearly is that McClellan really made Pryor look bad in a TV debate, but McClellan died early in his last term. Pryor is still said to be upset about his lost to McClellan but he went on to win McClellan's senate seat in 1978 after McClellan's death.