Notes And Quotes
by Big Dog on Nov 2, 2009 at 04:53 Political
RINO in New York quits race
Republican (In Name Only) Dede Scozzafava in New York’s 23rd Congressional District decided to drop out of the race after Conservative Party member Doug Hoffman took a lead in the polls and Scozzafava ran low on money and could not continue her campaign. Hoffman should win the contest but anything can happen (his opponent is backed by ACORN) and this will be a blow to Obama who selected the former Republican Congressman to be Secretary of the Army in hopes of getting a Democrat in the seat.
Scozzafava was an appealing choice to Democrats as well because she held all of their positions. She was pro-choice, endorsed by ACORN, supported Cap and Trade, supported the stimulus and has taken a number of positions that align her with the liberals. If a Republican had to win this then she was the one Obama could live with. Unfortunately for Obama, a conservative entered the race. Hoffman is also a concern for a Republican establishment that has not learned that acting like liberals does not lead to success at the polls.
Hoffman received endorsements from establishment yes men like Newt Gingrich and Michael Steele along with the RNC but Hoffman received endorsements from true conservatives like Sarah Palin, Tim Pawlenty and Fred Thompson, people who were not willing to support someone just because an R was next to her name. If Hoffman wins there will be a message for Obama in it but also one for the Republican establishment.
Valerie Jarrett, an Obama adviser, said this:
“It’s rather telling when the Republican Party forces out a moderate Republican and it says, I think, a great deal about where the Republican Party is right now,” she said. Fox
What is rather telling is that Jarrett thinks someone with Scozzafava’s positions is moderate. This just goes to show how out of touch she is because she believes that the radical positions of the administration are moderate.
How much of a Republican is Scozzafava?
She endorsed the Democrat in the race, a move that Jarrett welcomed.
Ever wonder why it is that people like Jarrett will make statements like she did about Republicans rejecting a “moderate” candidate when her party is eviscerating its own moderates because they will not support the health care takeover?
What a difference an administration makes
Attorney General Eric Holder says a lawsuit in San Francisco over warrantless wiretapping threatens to expose ongoing intelligence work and must be thrown out.
In making the argument, the Obama administration agreed with the Bush administration’s position on the case but insists it came to the decision differently. A civil liberties group criticized the move Friday as a retreat from promises President Barack Obama made as a candidate. AP
After all the campaigning Obama did and all the carping he did about Bush and wiretaps his AG wants the lawsuits dismissed because of national security. I applaud the decision but wonder why an apology to Bush was not rendered at the same time.
The claim here is that Obama’s folks came to the same conclusion by different means. While I doubt this, who cares? If Bush said it was bad for national security and Obama says the same thing, who cares about how they arrived at that conclusion? The important thing is both of them state their goals as protecting national security.
Some people are unhappy with ObaMao because they claim he is breaking his campaign promise.
Here is a newsflash for them. He has broken a whole bunch of them. All of his promises come with an expiration date so get use to it.
I agree with Hillary Clinton 100%
I do not often agree with Hillary Clinton. She is another Socialist but just not as far out there as her boss. But when she gets something correct I have to give her credit. During her visit to Pakistan she noted that [in Pakistan] “…the percentage of taxes on GDP is among the lowest in the world”.
She then made a statement that I agree with:
We (the United States) tax everything that moves and doesn’t move, and that’s not what we see in Pakistan,” she said. Daily Times
Hillary is correct that we tax everything and if the morons in government get their way with cap and tax they will tax us for breathing (since we produce CO2). This is about as far as I go with Clinton because while she was astute enough to observe our tax situation she is also one of the people responsible for those taxes. She is a tax and spend liberal who thinks nothing of increasing taxes or adding a new tax in order to get more money flowing into government.
Yes Hillary, we tax everything and you are one of the reasons.
I guess I should feel good for her. They say that recognizing the problem is the first step to recovery.
Tags: Clinton, election, New York, Obama, pakistan, scozzafava, wiretapping
I didn’t realize how much I missed the election until just a few days ago. The election ended and then I spent most of the year writing, and programming for baseball. Now that it’s over for the Dodgers I’m starting to realize how long it’s been since I was excited to look at election polls. I’m ready for this stuff to get moving.
It will be fun. I would say something about the Dodgers but I am from Baltimore and we know how poorly the storied orioles franchise has done for the last 10 years…
We can start arguing again over things we can’t change and races we can’t influence. Just like old times, fun will ensue.
Well, the Dodgers are a very good team lately so I can’t complain. They made it deep into October two seasons in a row but both times were outmatched by a very strong Phils team.
Given the Nationals history I’d say Maryland is cursed lately in the baseball category. But the Nationals for example are a young team with some potential under the right guide. Not sure about the Orioles or what their movement is. Any idea if there’s hope in the future for them?
You guys just shut up! 🙂 Become a Cubs’ fan then you may complain. Until then…
BTW, once the playoffs stated I had to root for the Dodgers because of Jim Thome. He’s from Bartonville, IL just outside Peoria. Now I’m rooting for the Yankees, difficult as it may be, becuase of Joe Girardi who’s from East Peoria.
I’m rooting Yanks as well because I’m tired of gloating Phillies fans from the region I live in.
Looking at NY 23 in question, the GOP should stick their hard liners in where they can I guess. This is the biggest and reddest district in NY. Looks like it will be a close finish tomorrow, or maybe not.
The latest poll has Hoffman up by double digits since Scozzafave dropped out (todays poll at RCP). Hoffman is not a hard liner, he is conservative with conservative values. Scozzafava had liberal values. That is fine if that is what she believes but then she should be a Democrat and Republicans should not be expected to support here because of the letter next to her name. Hoffman clearly espouses the conservative values and he is not a career politician.
The poll you’re talking about doubts the surge has anything to do with Scozzafave:
So it’s possible it could climb even more before the voting.
The establishment RJNOS gave Dede one mil- what did they get for their money? Betrayal- this should be a lesson for all RINOS- time to man up, or switch parties.
If you want to have a squishy moral center, become a lib.
If not, learn to have some fortitude.
Scozzafava isn’t the RINO you want her to be. I guess if being Republican means you have to be anti-abortion and gay marriage then maybe. She was strongly against gun control though for instance.
She was endorsed by ACORN, supported cap and trade, supported the stimulus and is pro life. The fact that she is against gun control means she supports one position. She is more aptly described as a pro Second Amendment Democrat.
You are right, the poll taken doubts the impact but ownes had a +1 lead prior to her announcement.
I think Hoffman’s lead will widen today.
It’s also possible given they don’t credit Scozzafava for the change that the poll could be an outlier. But most likely this data is picking up on the same trend that lead to Scozzafava dropping out. They surely had internal polling in the week before the dropout and could have detected a large movement toward Hoffman. It will be interesting to see because as you’ve said already people like to pick up these early elections as a measurement of the party in the White House. Anything but a sweeping Republican victory though should be considered a decent sign for the Dems considering the Republican that left office won the seat by 30% last time out.
I can’t find where Scozzafava supported cap and trade and according to Newt it was the opposite.
I can’t become a Cubs fan. I am not into self harm…
I don’t know what the O’s will do. It seems they decide to spend money and then go with rebuilding. 10 years seems long enough to rebuild and if they don’t put a decent product on the field soon they will have a lot of empty seats at their beautiful taxpayer funded stadium.
I don’t know Adam, seems that Obama must have thought he had a chance to pick that seat up. That is why he tapped its original occupant for Secretary of the Army. It looks like that will backfire.
I believe the race is a message to both Republicans and Democrats. Both had some skin in this game and now they are being overshadowed by a grass roots effort, or should I say a community organized…
I think Obama saw the chance to do many things at once with the appointment. I’m not sure if he thought it was guaranteed the seat would go to a Dem but taking a 30%+, powerful and respected Republican from the seat can’t hurt the Dems.
There’s also the NJ Gov race that is neck and neck. Looks like Virginia Gov is one sided.
Considering the make up of NJ, that is a statement about the governance there. A lot of people do not like Corzine and I think if there was not a third party candidate in there Christie would win. That might be a deal that Corzine struck.
I think Christie has a good chance of winning but it will be a close race either way.
There is a new NY-23 poll out on RCP showing Hoffman +5. The momentum is definitely on his side. The most interesting thing of all perhaps will be exit polls if the media does any good ones.
There’s a quote in the poll:
It’s wroth noting the margin of error of +/- 4% combined with the 18% undecided in the recent poll could make for interesting results tomorrow if this poll is closer to reality than the PPP.
Adam, I am not sure there is such a thing as a reliable exit poll- everybody seems to get it so wrong-
I don’t think that’s true. I don’t know if you’d stake public policy on an exit poll or not but it’s a good glimpse into the reasoning behind a voter’s decision even if it’s not 100% accurate.
Still say only the GOP stands to get hurt in NY-23 if there is hurt doled out.
If the GOP wins bigs the Dems say “Well, that’s a deep red seat anyway, it’s no surprise it stayed red.”
If the GOP barely wins the Dems say “It goes to show you how weak the GOP is if a deep red seat only barely stays red.”
If the Dems win big or small there will be a huge amount of liberal gloating and this will be molded into a referendum on Palin and Beck and the 9/12 movement in general.
Unless Corzine loses NJ. But I think that a sweep by Republicans and Health care overhaul is in trouble.
I think this is one Obama thought he had a chance at.
The district is Republican but not extremely conservative.
No, 23 is as red as a district gets in NY- but that is not really saying much, unless it is changing because of all the unnecessary spending in Washington- attitudes may be changing- we shall see.
I think you may be right with a GOP sweep today. Of course it’s like a debate. Both sides are going to somehow claim victory even if one of the other lost miserably in reality.