It's time to ride the tiger. Some get that.

Sarah Palin, for one, does get that.

Newt Gingrich, for one, doesn't get that.

Nor does Michael Steele.

They better learn, and learn fast.

Stating the obvious -- the Tiger lost.

Ride it for all it's worth - it's worth has proven short of "election-winning".

I wonder how bad Hoffman would have beat Owens if the republican party had picked and supported him instead of Scozzafava? Would the dems be crowing today that their known party member was only 4 or so points ahead of a third party unknown in an election, I doubt it. mpw

Obviously Steve Green doesn't get it either.

He either thinks he does, or is trying to hijack the thread.

Good post, Jay!

I'll try to get the formatting right this time.

It's time to ride the tiger. Some get that.

Sarah Palin, for one, does get that.

Newt Gingrich, for one, doesn't get that.

Nor does Michael Steele.

They better learn, and learn fast.

Stating the obvious -- the Tiger lost.

Riding a losing tiger doesn't make sense.

Steele and Gingrich were vindicated. Splitting the non-Democratic vote is losing proposition - you will always end up pushing moderates into the Demcoratic camp.

It was obvious to Steele. He was right.

It was obvious to Gingrich. He was right.

Sarah Palin can't exist in the middle so with her enormous ego she is trying to split the GOP and it's will just push more Dems in to the win category.

Ride a losing tiger and you will lose.

Just like you lost NY-23.

"Steele and [Newt] were vindicated."

Green, Sturm, by any other name the effluent so ladled 'twould smell as sweet.

The NRCC hosed the selection, hosed the eventual defacto candidate by attacking him rather than the Donk, hosed their pick by abandoning her, hosed the third party guy by taking over his campaign in the last days, etc.

Inevitable? The Donks hadn't represented the district since the Civil War. The DNF candidate got more votes than the margin of victory over the third party.

Hoffman had cojones and we salute him but he's an overacheiver and didn't figure to be the candidate otherwise.

The DC GOP crapped the bed.

Stevie is just another totally obsessed Palin hater. Also, as always, Stevie doesn't get the point of the post. What is more important is that the RNC did and even more important are the representatives serving now that will be up for election next year. No moderate-liberal republicans will get elected or re-elected. And the Blue Dog democrats in the south and tighter districts got the message. Obama has been exposed as the inexperienced empty suit we conservatives always knew he was. I am extremely pleased of the outcome of yesterdays election. Even here in liberal Houston Texas there is a run off between a conservative republican and a conservative democrat for mayor. The worm has turned. Liberals deny and spin all you want. One year of Obama and we have nothing except higher unemployment. Less transparency. More earmarks. Triple deficit spending. Lack of leadership in the wars. Can't close Gitmo.

One thing Obama does well is hold many parties at the white house. More then any other president. All the while faux saluting fallen soldiers for a photo op. Shame, shame. ww

NY23 congressional district

Michael R. McNulty · Democratic, January 3, 1989 - January 3, 1993 ..

Maggie
The MSM doesn't care about the truth. They repeat a lie enough it becomes reality.

Wayne,
That's true, but it can be corrected at
Wizbang. :)

I'm afraid that the GOP does get it, but the lesson they are going to draw from it is that they need to shut up people from talking on the internet.

It's not about ideas or convictions for either major party any more. It's only about power and perpetual incumbency.

Maggie, great catch. In fact, if Wiki is reliable (and it's hard to tell because of redistricting), it looks like the district has been mostly Democratic since the 30s.

Lesson--never accept anything from the MSM or the left without checking it.

The GOP pushed a Liberal candidate because it believed that its conservative supporters had no where to go.

NY23 proved them wrong.

Newt's candidate QUIT
Steele's candidate QUIT
The NRCC's's candidate QUIT
She also took 900k in cash and then endorsed the Democrat candidate.

The conservatives won because they had a candidate they could vote for.

"Sarah Palin can't exist in the middle so with her enormous ego she is trying to split the GOP and it's will just push more Dems in to the win category."

She really does got You and VIC by the angstly sac does'nt She.

Wasn't the real problem the fact that the local party bosses picked a woman so thin skinned she called the cops on a reporter asking a question? And then lied (proven by video) about how the reporter was acting in an agressive / threatening manner. Had the bosses nominated someone who didn't make Drudge for being a whiny witch, we would hardly have heard of her.

That's a great observation, that "losing a single election simply isn't enough to squash movements like this. It usually takes either a completely crushing defeat, or a victory that they are unprepared for...."

In the latter category, there is another very prominent leader of a "movement" that comes to mind.

I said and remain convinced that, when Barack Obama entered the race against Hillary Clinton, he did not expect to win. What he did expect was to get himself on the map big time, use that prominence in the Senate, and run for the big chair down the road. A confluence of factors that had nothing to do with him (and certainly not because of any "masterful political skills") resulted in his winning both the nomination and the presidency.

And here we are.

Is his movement being "destroyed" as a result? I will refrain from comment, and merely ask the dear reader to look around.

"Had the bosses nominated someone who didn't make Drudge for being a whiny witch, we would hardly have heard of her."

True. But the facts would remain the same whether or not those of us outside NY-23 were aware. I said earlier that the RNC bosses never for a second counted on the rest of the country learning squat about this race. In the past, unless there was some child pornography going on, few cared about another's district.

The "real problem" was far more than just the thickness of her skin or some petty altercation. Though that was the catalyst for her downfall (it shed light on the rest of her history) it's not what finished her.

Look at Cynthia McKinney (if you can). She got physical with a security guard, but that's not what ended her career. It was the attention it brought to her record. But I guess it's not her fault that the public refused to understand the importance of directing tax-payer money to a museum dedicated to the life and times of Tupac (among many other useless legislative suggestions she proposed.) I had the distinct pleasure of perusing her Congressional website too. Charming, to say the least. One whole page was dedicated to glamor shots of herself.

A lesson for both sides to learn from this:

The party leadership controls the "Get Out the Vote" machine. If you are going to tell them to take a hike, you better have your own machine ready to roll. Otherwise you will get beat on the ground on election day.

The Republican Party really jumped the shark in New York's 23rd and it will either get that message or will be 86-ed everywhere else.

Meanwhile Mr Gingrich and his ilk had better have a fork put in'em.

The old-(two?)-timers are all done and the new leader is named Sarah Louise Heath Reagan-Palin.

New York unemployment is on the rise, but conditions vary throughout the state according to this heat map:
http://www.localetrends.com/st/ny_new_york_unemployment.php?MAP_TYPE=curr_ue