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Ali Akbar and I just dropped by the luxurious Best Western Carriage House Inn in Watertown, N.Y., on our way to Buffalo. This morning, we went by Hoffman HQ in Saranac Lake, where "Dougie" -- as his childhood friends call him -- was thanking supporters who dropped in. The phone kept ringing as well-wishers called in from everywhere to encourage him to keep up the fight. One call came from Silver City, N.M., another from an American working in Japan as an English teacher.
Hoffman said one of his neighbors told him today that this amazing campaign was "target practice." One of his old friends stopped by and mentioned the yard signs she had distributed. "Keep 'em for next year," Hoffman said.
While one staffer had told me immediately after the concession speech that Hoffman had been "crushed" by the narrow defeat, the candidate was feeling decidedly more encouraged by the time his wife, Carol, came by to take him to lunch (their first lunch together in three months, he said).
Hoffman said Tuesday evening, when it became clear that he'd fallen 4,000 votes short of victory, he was disappointed not so much for himself, but on behalf of all the many people who had lent their support to his campaign. Wednesday morning, however, dozens of those supporters had already contacted him -- both in person, and through the Hoffman campaign Web site -- to tell him how proud they were of his effort, and to urge him to keep fighting.
What does it mean? We'll let Michelle Malkin answer that question for now.
Ali's flight leaves Buffalo at 7 p.m., and we'll have to drive hard to get to the airport in time. But I just felt I needed to take a minute to pass along this message:
HOFFMANIA LIVES!
UPDATE (Smitty): Fred Thompson's winners and losers mentions Hoffman.
UPDATE II (Smitty): American Glob embeds Rush Limbaugh, and here is some more Fred Thompson analysis.
Term limits now! Texas 81 year old RINO Kay Granger, missing for six months
found in a nursing home
-
How many more of these geriatric geezers are around in the House and
Senate? Now we have Kay Granger, a
The post Term limits now! Texas 81 year old RINO ...
9 hours ago
Wolverines!
ReplyDeleteBut he lost. He's done.
ReplyDelete@Anonymous
ReplyDeleteUnless you're Doug Hoffman or the Almighty, you don't know that.
Now, you could be a Lefty emoting wishfully, in which case the fact is that we've more Hoffmans than you've ammunition.
Hoffmania Lives?
ReplyDeleteOk.
I'll be interested to see if RSM replies to this at Taki's.
http://www.takimag.com/sniperstower/article/not_a_revolution/
Hoffman did fine. Very good given the circumstances. Owens, to the Democrats credit, was a good candidate. Hoffman went from nothing to within 4000 votes in a few months. That is very good. Dede Scozzafava was a dirty snake in the grass.
ReplyDeleteAs I was driving home from work today, I heard Laura Ingram basically say about Doug Hoffman 'Thanks, pal, for running. Great effort. Now go away. You ain't got what it takes to win.' and then a little later I read this by Ramesh Ponnuru over at The Corner:
ReplyDelete[Stephen] Spruiell concludes, "In the next few months, conservatives will be urging Hoffman to fight on." Should they? Conservatives should, I think, be grateful that he ran, providing someone for conservatives to support and rebuking the local party establishment. But that doesn't mean he's the best candidate going forward.
With all due respect to Miss Ingram and Mr. Ponnuru, you two have spent too much time hob-nobbing with the conservative and Republican elites in Washington.
Doug Hoffman is unpolished as a public figure, unsophisticated in his speaking, not at all slick or over-scripted in his presentations, and he does not speak in Establishment-Speak. He is awkward. A man of few words, what little he does say is meaningful and heartfelt. He is not a polished actor like so many in Washington are. He holds dear certain beliefs that he has thought long and hard about. Stacy has commented that you will never see him involved in a D.C. sex scandal should he be elected to the Congress, and he is quite right. I'm sorry if the two of you have become so enamored of the thin-layered sheen of the politicians you break bread with that you disdain the average Joe or Joan and their normal and [to you] bland and unexciting demeanors. I'm sorry if Doug Hoffman is not one of The Republicans Who Matter!, not one of the Conservative Beautiful People and never will be.
Actually, what I'm sorry about is the way you two and your fellow CBP's have allowed yourselves to become Washington D.C. Pod People in what, in this day and age, passes for High Society.
Doug Hoffman and the others like him who, in the wake of the Leftists attempt to overthrow the Founding, will stand up and put themselves in the firing line, are EXACTLY the kind of people we need to run for office. I don't want slickness or polish and I most especially don't want to hear more of the same conservative and Republican bromides—the same Luntz-vetted phrases over and over and over. I want average folks who don't give a damn if a hair is out of place, a suit rumpled because they can only afford a couple of them, or who are awkward in public. None of that matters as long as they have, as John Adams said was essential, commitment to traditional American values and never utter anything that is not simple, plain, and honest. Newt, Frum, Brooks, Noonan, et. al. are a part of the problem, but so are you high falutin' Beautiful People.
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PS: It's Time To ROC 'N' ROLL: Restore Our Constitution & Restore Our Lost Liberties
Awww, a little post-election loss denial.
ReplyDeleteHard to swallow that Conservatism took one on the chin last night.
Newt was right after all....
Hoffmania never happened. No matter how you spin it, the fact is a Dem won in a Republican stronghold.
Damn. Must really hurt right about now....