It is expected but hardly welcome to see a boot lick attitude from supposed leading lights of the nation .
I hope have not put this too strongly , to hurt the feeling of any random boot lick is not of any comfort to me . Yet , it is a perfect demonstration for future boot licks . Accordingly for the perfection of form , dutiful sip from the Lethe , and final dream state execution , I award a 9.8 .

That's gonna require being quoted on leaflets and left on every likely voter's door, prominently played as a dated REPUBLICAN spokesman's view.

It's all ground game now.

If Hoffman wins, the Palinization of the Republican party will be complete.

The perfect Republican candidate will be anyone who has no grasp of pertinent issues, mindlessly parrots talking point regardless of the substance of questions, and takes pride in their ignorance. Hoffman was so out of his depth that he needed Dick Armey to answer questions for him.

Every Republican in congress who is to the left of Michelle Bachmann will have to radically shift to the right or, lose their seat.

So far, the only Republican who has demonstrated the back-bone to stand up to the tea-baggers is Lindsey Graham.

I can't wait untill 2012.

The Theocrats, such as Sarah Palin, have hijacked the party and are attempting to move it farther to the right. No wonder fewer and fewer people align themselves with the party of no.

We should bear in mind that if Hoffman wins the election will be a referendum on Obama and the results will be an accurate predictor of every other election for the next decade or so. A Hoffman victory will be a predictor, but not in the way that Republicans hope it will. It will send a clear signal that many candidates will have to embrace fact-free, teabagging, theocratic lunacy to get the nomination. Sadly, there are still plenty of places in America where that will work.

He's going to win, and frankly, that will be a disaster.

This situation now looks more and more like a win-win for Democrats. Either they win a seat that's been in GOP hands since the Civil War or a victorious Hoffman will be the model for birthers and teabaggers nationwide to go after any GOP incumbent who displeases them.

Looks like the Republicans, completely unhinged by defeat in 2006 and 2008, are determined to shrink to an ideologically pure core in 2010 and 2012.

Looks like the Republicans, completely unhinged by defeat in 2006 and 2008, are determined to shrink to an ideologically pure core in 2010 and 2012.

The Bush trait of refusing to admit mistakes, and therefore, learn from them is coming full circle.

Republicans are speeding over a cliff because, they refuse to consider the possibility that their policy prescriptions might be wrong.

I couldn't have happened to a worse bunch.

This is why Rahm Emanuel is Chief of Staff. He knew that all hell was going to break loose when he recommended President Obama tap John McHugh for Army Secretary. But I doubt even he thought it would work this well.

Blue Girl; I think you nailed it . The Obama administration has been playing rope a dope with these fools for some time. There are very few things that they do that are not well thought out. That's why I am so happy he is "dithering" on Afghanistan..stopping to think out a course of action instead of plowing ahead. And why isn't President John McCain on the talk shows this week- I want to here his views on this race.

There's something to be said for how shrewd Scozzafava was to drop out when and how she did -- the conservatives who are enthusiastic and new to this election have surely all committed to Hoffman already. Her lingering support was mostly Republican, but all moderate, while Owens' support -- which should be a distinct minority in this district -- comes from Democrats who would never vote for a Republican.

Had she stayed in and Owens won, she would have been blamed for the loss of a solidly Republican seat. If she stayed in and Hoffman won, she'd have been humiliated. But if Hoffman wins now, Scozzafava has done a demonstrably righteous thing by her party.

On the other hand, should Hoffman manage to LOSE it now, the media and all those folks who didn't know Fort Drum from Fort Knox will move on. (Anybody wanna bet Sarah Palin doesn't know Plattsburg from Pittsburg?) Hoffman's political career will be over before it began -- and this will STILL be a Republican district.

Which Scozzafava could pick up easily next November.

While I would like to believe that this shift to the radical-right is a win-win for Democrats, as many others have reasoned, I'm not convinced. There is a down side. This tactic of driving out the moderates certainly increases the political polarization of the country, and will make many of these local races into national contests with loads of money coming from outside interests. That should not be allowed although probably hard to control even if it were illegal. Residents in the district are not well served by having their representatives elected, effectively, by outside interests with a strong ideological agenda.

Unless voters are repulsed by the disgraceful caliper of candidates produced by the litmus test for radical right-wing purity now being enacted by the Stalinist wing of the Rethugs, the wing nut contingent, already far too large in Congress, may well grow even larger. That isn't good for the country or the Democrats. Only an unequivocal rejection of these candidates is the solution, but I have my doubts that it will happen in as many places as it should.

This district bordering Canada in upstate NY may well be conservative by NY standards, but it has at least three colleges and universities in it, and isn't a looney-tune area. Forcing out the qualified moderate candidate and replacing her with an incompetent and inexperienced wing-nut will, one would hope, make long-time Republicans reevaluate their allegiance. If Hoffman wins, the district loses, but Palinization will continue.

rich @ 12:28 PM -

"This tactic of driving out the moderates certainly increases the polarization of the country...".

That polarization is being caused by the Republican Party and we have no control over it. The polarization will continue until they retake their, to them, rightful place as the governing party of this country. In other words, hoefully never. Until Republican voters sicken of this radical take-over of their party, there isn't much we can do except try to limit the ability of these right-wing nutjobs to do any further damage to this country. And the only way to do that is to further and further marginalize the idiots - NOT those who, in any other instance, would be considered "mainstream" Republicans.

"...will make many of these local races into national contests..."

Which will further and further divide the tea-baggers from the (probable) majority of those who usually vote Republican. Only when the right-wingers are consistently voted out of office will there be any chance for intelligent Republicans to retake their party.

"Unless voters are repulsed by the disgraceful caliper(sic) of candidates produced by the litmus test for radical right-wing purity..."

And that is the whole point; many people who vote for Republican candidates are "independents", many of very recent origin; ie, former self-identified Republicans. Those voters will either vote Democrat, for third party candidates or sit out the election/s. Only in districts where the Republicans can afford to lose a very sizable percentage of their supporters will there be any danger of increasing the "wing nut contingent". Since that is where many of those wing nuts are from already, the chance of seeing any large increase in their numbers is problematical.
Not to say there won't be radicals even more rabid, just not that many of them.

"Hoffman doesn't even technically live in the district"

If Hoffman wins, can we expect another crusade for electoral justice from Orly Taitz?

Quite a lot of the discussion about NY-23 seems to assume that this district is roughly similar to, say, a NYC suburb. "If a far right tea-bagger supported candidate can win in New York State, then (blah blah blah.)"

It sounds more like a sub-zero version of Alabama. Here's a partial quote from a NY-23 native which you can read on The Daily Dish: "Northern NY is very beautiful, very cold, very rural, and slowly crumbling to dust beneath the crushing weight of high state taxes and few opportunities for gainful employment. Industry fled years ago, and the main source of employment is a massive Army base, Fort Drum (....) Rural Northern Ny-ers are, in general, hardcore rednecks and proud of it. They hunt and fish and have snowmobiles and ATVs that are nicer than their falling down homes (....) They are...well, a lot like Sarah Palin pretends to be (....) It makes me sad to see exactly how far Northern NY been sucked into the delusional vortex of the Christianist Right. But then, I watched the area, and the people who live there, decline even as I was growing up."