They bettr take note, because conservatives from all over will put forth both effort and money to get the right person in office. One who will vote against these crazy bills put forth by the dems.

Doug Hoffman came in late, had the guts to throw his hat in the ring and gave it is all, we should all be proud of Doug. Conservatism won tonight, the Republican leadership has had a shot across its bow and a wake up call on vetting candidates.

Steele and company are on notice; get your act together because we are going to keep you honest.

Remember, there are a lot more Doug Hoffman’s out there, we have only just stirred, wait until 2010.

‘Tis better to have fought and lost, Than never to have fought at all.

Thank you Doug Hoffman.

Ironically, as I write this it looks like we will lose the pickup in NY23, but for reasons of local politics, will win the NJ race most of only dreamed we could win. In the end the corruption of the Dem machine in NJ was simply too much for voters to endure any longer. Equally ironically, The Big 0 was trapped into supporting Corzine because he couldn’t afford to lose VA, NY23, and NJ. Losing all three is embarrassing, especially NJ. So he went and wound up embarrassed anyway, because he had now put his prestige on the line and lost. Sort of like he did with the Olympics. And the missile shield. And getting Soviet, I mean Russian cooperation to thwart Iran’s nuclear missile ambitions. And like SNL observed he had done with “Don’t ask, don’t tell.” Maybe there’s a pattern there. And just maybe blue dogs should pay attention to that pattern.

For example: as a community organizer, Obama became an expert at exploiting the anger of the disenfranchised.

In 2008 bashing Bush was THE poltical hot button and Obama’s experience served him extremely well but what plays in the role of opposition party does not play in the role of incumbent. Obama came to power by blaming everything on Republicans and he’s still doing it…despite being (arguably) more thoroughly in power than any American President in history.

The playbook he developed in Chicago seems to be all he’s got – and it’s going to come to hurt him more and more.

We’ve already seen in backfiring but Obama can’t seem to change tactics. Obama extraordinarily misread the country when he indulged in gratuitous greivance mongering re: the Gates arrest. As Rush pointed out, the question wasn’t a surprise- Obama was prepared and it was the one part of the press conference he really got fired up about.

It’s pretty clear Obama thought exploitig racial tension would HELP him rather than sending his numbers plummeting. He hasn’t got the message he’s still trying to create phony grievances – against Fox News, against Republicans who don’t agree with his health plan etc.

Obama used his big, ultra hyped healthcare speech to try and blame Republicans and peddle the same old lies. He used all his rhetoric, made the most of the bully pulpit and the result was that within a week healthcare had less support than ever.

He misread the Olympic bid, The Russians. There are so many examples to prove Obama is absurdly out of his depth and slow if not incapable of changing course.

The bottom line is that if Obama can’t pull Corzine across the finish line in New Jersey, he can’t salvage a Blue Dog in the South. The only downside to tonight is that the Blue Dog knows it–but that may be offset by a previous vote for Cap and Trade.