This...
The race has now been called for Democrat Bill Owens.
This is a huge win for conservatives.
I don't really even know where to begin. This is insane beyond belief. This is ultra-crazy. This is a grey guy in a suspiciously familiar blue-and-red ensemble going "ME AM CONSERVATIVE. ME WIN BIG WITH HOFFMAN!"
Let's go back to Erick Erickson, who is in no way in denial...
First, the GOP now must recognize it will either lose without conservatives or will win with conservatives. In 2008, many conservatives sat home instead of voting for John McCain. Now, in NY-23, conservatives rallied and destroyed the Republican candidate the establishment chose.
And the result of this conservative insurgence? The return of conservatism? A real man fighting against the liberals in Congress? No! A Democrat won. Cheers, guys!
Were we to combine Scozzafava and Hoffman’s votes, Hoffman would have won.
There are a number of assumptions here, just in this one sentence, that are difficult to suggest are anything but wishful thinking. Here's a hint, guys - if people voted for Scozzafava, who apparently wasn't just a RINO, but a DIABLO (gosh, I'm scared), "backed by ACORN", some kind of "liberal"; why the hell would they vote for the wingnut?
Anyway, as you expect the basic argument is this: we must run conservative, or you will lose elections. (We will not point out that we ran conservative, and lost the election)
Also third-parties suck, which for some reason is why we didn't beat Owens, so you teabaggers better stay in the GOP, yeah? (We will not point out that this inadvertently denigrates the power of grassroots campaigns, which we are supposedly celebrating, and also assumes that elite infrastructure is important, which we are supposedly attacking. ERICKSON AM GREAT POLITICAL STRATEGIST.)
Erickson also desperately wants to apply this formula to other races:
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.
I have not been this happy since I found a 20 pound note stuck to my shoe in a bar.