I have always been of the opinion that a candidate that has lost once…

…is actually a better candidate because they have the experience of losing. Failure tends to be a rough but solid teacher, but you need to have a student willing to learn from those lessons.

If Martha Coakley was the type, she could learn from her loss and come back stronger. I don’t know if she is the type but we will see.

Which brings us to Doug Hoffman.

Conservatives owe Doug Hoffman a real debt. If Dede Scozzafava had won she would not only been a vote for Obamacare, she would have been on every TV show and every network portrayed as the “Republican”. She would have been jammed down our throats as the “bipartisan” republican ideal and proof that republicans had to abandon conservatism.

If we had Scozzafava, we would not have had Scott Brown, Period! The only reason why we don’t have Scozzafava is because of Doug Hoffman. I met Doug briefly at CPAC and shook his hand thanking him. We owe him big.

All that being said he made some errors. At the debate he seemed weak on local issues, he conceded too quickly and then unconseded and then reacted poorly when the loss held up.

These were all errors but are not fatal errors. With time and experience under his belt he has been busy, not only keeping up his conservative credentials nationally but within the district. With hard work on the local issues he will be better prepared to face Bill Owens in the fall. It is necessary to have both a national and local message, a primary election will enable that.

Of course Bill Owens breaking of his campaign promises with record speed certainly won’t hurt Doug, particularly since he attacked incredibly unpopular obamacare way back when (was this only 4 months ago?)

So as the bard wrote, once more, once more unto the breech.

“I’m just an average citizen, standing up to say, ‘We’re fed up. We’re not going to take this any more,’ ” Mr. Hoffman told The Washington Times in a telephone interview Tuesday. “I don’t think anybody should expect to inherit political office … . I’m going to work very hard to earn the respect and support of all the voters in the district.”

Nice to see Stacy’s byline at the Washington Times again. The village voice may think it’s funny but I suspect they will not be laughing in November. As Stacy writes:

“I do know there are a lot of grass-roots supporters around the district who still have [Hoffman for Congress] signs in their basements, and they’re itching to get them back out.”

Well it’s time to break out mine too.

Vote Hoffman!

Ny-23 the Healthcare Vote and God’s Mysterious ways

In case my conservative friends still haven’t gotten it let me say one more time. I dislike this healthcare bill and believe it should be defeated.

But lets look at something interesting:

One month ago it looked like Dede the angrysmug would be elected to congress. She would be the one republican vote for this bill. She would be lionized by the media and held up as an example of moderation and bi-partisianship. She would be interviewed on every MSM outlet and held up as an example saying that Republicans need to moderate on Abortion and Gay Marriage. For a year this would be shoved down our throats.

But by the efforts of Doug Hoffman, Sarah Palin and conservatives all over the country. Dede was dropped like a bad habit and may even lose her position in the NY Republican delegation.

Although Hoffman was not elected he was just about the only republican/conservative who wasn’t on Tuesday. The democrat who defeated him Bill Owens managed to compromise himself with the voters who elected him in under 24 hours (Hoffman 2010). The president was desperate for a victory and more importantly needed one NOW! As time passed the 2010 election would be coming closer and the vote would be more painful and costly for blue dog democrats.

Now comes Joseph Cao the man who replaced William (Refrigerator) Jefferson. His district is about as democratic as you can get and he squeaked through with 49% to win. The bill is very popular there but Cao wasn’t buying and I wrote about this in August:

You know that in a district where there hasn’t been a republican congressman since 1890 and is 64% black it might be politically necessary for a newly elected republican to support the president on some key issues. Even if Abortion is paid for in it..

But Don Surber reports that when congressman Anh Cao says he is a Catholic, unlike say a John Kerry or a Nancy Pelosi he means it:

Cho bluntly stated that he would rather lose his seat than to vote for a healthcare bill that supports abortion.

Obama needed a win and wanted at least one republican so places like Think Progress could have headlines like this:

House Passes Historic, Bipartisan Health Reform Legislation

So comes the Stupak amendment and the vote for it. ONE QUARTER of the democratic caucus votes for the pro-life amendment, Pro-Abortion democrats hold their nose and vote for the final bill anyway.

Now the media has a dilemma: There is a Republican who voted for the bill. He is the first Vietnamese congressman, he has a great story and now he has been the vote for healthcare, one would expect that he would be lionized all over the place…

…however he is a DEVOUT Catholic and only was willing to vote for the bill because the Abortion provision was included and has made it clear that re-election campaign if the Abortion language goes so will he.

What is the MSM to do? Can they lionize an anti-abortion republican? Can they praise him on the talk shows? Will Obey, Maddow, the today show, the view and all the others dare to push him and praise a believing catholic who practices what he preaches?

If they don’t then they lose their bi-partisan meme if they do then they lionize faith. I think they will ignore him, I think in the end the media is so far left that even supporting Obama and this bill is not enough for them to go against their sacrament.

God works in mysterious ways, but I don’t see this as very mysterious. Bills come and go, parties rise and fall but Sin is Sin and God is constant.

I still hope the bill will fail but I’m going to enjoy watching the media squirm over the next two days over Cao.

Q: Why is Bill Owens so compatible with the Obama Administration?

A: Because it took him less that 1 hour in congress to break 4 campaign promises.

No wonder Dede the angry smugly satisfied endorsed him. Moe Lane is not surprised and Katty Kay apparently knew what she was talking about.

No offense voters of Ny-23 but as always you get the government you deserve.

Vote Hoffman 2010.

NY 23 Final Roundup…

I expected a lot more crowing on MSNBC but I guess the gay Marriage defeat is such a shock they can’t manage to bring themselves up to joy.

I’ve already given my two cents on the subject so lets see what a few others have said:

Robert Stacy McCain:

If the Republican bosses think they’re going to pick another candidate in NY23 for 2010, they’d better think again. The grassroots conservatives — the Tea Party people, the pro-lifers, the Club for Growth, Fred and Jeri Thompson, Sarah Palin — who backed Doug Hoffman aren’t going to forget his courageous example.

His co-blogger Smitty:

Recall that, had nothing been done, an even more leftist candidate than Owens may have taken the one-year seat. Owens wins, but understands that, if he’s running in 2010, he can’t ignore the Hoffman voters, any more than Bill Clinton to ignore fiscal conservatives who voted Perot.

Dump Dede:

We won in NY23. This blog served it’s purpose. Dede Scozzafava was dumped. She was dumped by the demographic to which she fronted, and when no one brought her Victorian freakshow, she removed the mask and revealed herself, lest any doubters remained. We won when we forced the GOP to concede support. We won when we showed them that good political sense and sharp strategy is an instinct, not exclusive to the beltway elite. We won because we wrenched the reigns from their hands.

We the tea party have been leading since February. In order to survive, the GOP must finally cash the promise its collective mouth has been writing about “we the people” and all that jazz: it must relent and let the people lead. Asking politely is a formality: NY23 has shown that we have the power to take it when we want.

Red State:

So we have demonstrated to the GOP that it must not take conservatives for granted. The GOP spent $900,000.00 on a Republican who dropped out and endorsed the Democrat. Were we to combine Scozzafava and Hoffman’s votes, Hoffman would have won.

Secondly, and just as importantly, there has all of a sudden been a huge movement among some activists to go the third party route. We see in NY-23 that this is not possible as third parties are not viable.

Third parties lack funding and ability for a host of reasons. Conservatives are going to have to work from within the GOP. The GOP had better pay attention.

For all intents and purposes, NY-23 is a trial run for Florida. And in Florida, the conservative candidate is operating inside the GOP. If John Cornyn and the NRSC do not want to see Florida go the way of NY-23, they better stand down.

Gotta look at the other Side Andrew Sullivan:

Well, I had begun to assume a big Hoffman victory. Not so fast. Owens has a small but real lead, with over 60 percent of the votes in. More interesting, Palin just doesn’t poll very well in a district that is almost tailor-made for her:

TCOT says that endorsement of Scozzafava what huge:

Doug Hoffman, whose success forced her to withdraw on Saturday showed that her Sunday endorsement of Owens was the decisive factor in his victory.

Owens carried her three home counties that she represents in the New York State Assembly by a decisive 53% to 42% margin. This was an 11% margin increase from the 36% to 36% tie the Siena Poll released on Monday revealed. Scozzafava’s vote dropped from 9% in the Monday poll to 6% in the actual results. Meanwhile, the 19% undecided in the three county region broke hard for Owens. 13% of the undecided went to Owens during a 48 period, while only 6% went to Hoffman.

and he seems the only person who doesn’t support Hoffman:

Owens will face his next electoral challenge in November 2010. He is certain to face a strong Republican challenger. This time around, however, the candidate will not be chosen by the eleven county chairmen meeting in a pizza restaurant. A primary will be held on September 14, 2010.

Though he captured the country’s attention with his humble nature, Hoffman ran such a poor campaign it is unlikely he would emerge as the Republican nominee in a primary, should he choose to run.

Hell hath no fury like an (Italian) woman scorned. He covered this race very well and deserves Props for it.

I’ve been looking for a lefty blog to quote that doesn’t use vulgar sexual references for the tea party crowd. No blog that uses that term in their comment on that race is going to be quoted here. Took me some time but I found on at MyDD:

In the nation’s most watched race, the New York Twenty-Third Congressional, Democrat Bill Owens defeated Conservative Doug Hoffman who was endorsed by Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, the Club for Growth, Fred Thompson, Dick Armey, Tim Pawlenty and much of the GOP leadership albeit belatedly. But in their rush to purify the Republican party, they also succeeded in driving moderates away. In the end, they not only drove Dede Scozzafava, the local GOP candidate, from the race but into the arms of Bill Owens, whom she endorsed. And no doubt, to capture a House seat that had been held by the GOP since the Civil War era is historic.

The battle for the NY-23 had been billed as one for the GOP’s soul. Tea Party conservatives see themselves as the base of the GOP when really they are just a fringe, and a lunatic fringe at that. But what matters in this case is their own perception of the situation. They are, I think, only more embolden to take on the GOP establishment who is frankly spineless, cowering in fear and out of ideas anyway. I suspect that the battle of the GOP’s soul will continue. Still whoever wins that contest wins a shell of a prize. As an aside, the Crist versus Rubio contest down in Florida for the US Senate seat now looks it will provide much fodder for the press and entertainment for us.

So should this mean republicans and Sarah Palin are a losing combination? Lets go straight to the source:

The race for New York’s 23rd District is not over, just postponed until 2010. The issues of this election have always centered on the economy – on the need for fiscal restraint, smaller government, and policies that encourage jobs. In 2010, these issues will be even more crucial to the electorate. I commend Doug Hoffman and all the other under-dog candidates who have the courage to put themselves out there and run against the odds.

To the tireless grassroots patriots who worked so hard in that race and to future citizen-candidates like Doug, please remember Reagan’s words of encouragement after his defeat in 1976:

“The cause goes on. Don’t get cynical because look at yourselves and what you were willing to do, and recognize that there are millions and millions of Americans out there that want what you want, that want it to be that way, that want it to be a shining city on a hill.”

The cause goes on.

Hmmm what happened to that guy who lost in 1976 and was written off?

My take? We lost, spinning it as not a loss just makes us look silly. All politics are local. Doug Hoffman flubbed local issue questions and that cost him, the million that the NRCC spent against him and then followed up with ads supporting him that didn’t even use his name was really lame. Scozzafava’s withdrawal so close to the end of the election made a huge difference because it didn’t give time for the passions and anger of her supporters to cool enough to go for Hoffman the guy who brought her down. If he wants the seat he needs to spend the next 6 months brushing up on those issues. It will all come down to Owens. Voting with Pelosi isn’t going to get him re-elected, but serving the people of his district is. That’s what it will call come down to.

I’ve said that I’d prefer Owens to Dede the angry avenged and I still think we dodged a huge bullet but it’s still a slice of bread instead of a feast. I’ll take the slice but I’m not so blinded that I’m going to pretend that I’m not disappointed.

Biggest Loser? Tim Pawlenty. When the media decided to ignore the Palin endorsement when they thought Hoffman was going to win so they pushed Pawlenty forward, he gains none of the the benefit of leading and taking a shot and all of the rocks from the loss.

Biggest Winner? the Watertown Daily Times:

They never expected one of their stories to be the lede on Memeorandem. They will get the hits again on the rematch, but I’d still like to see where that last 12% goes.

Exit Question: Will the NRCC and Gingrich go all Frum over this or no? If they make that same mistake then it will make 2010 very interesting.