NY23 UPDATE: Beware the MSM spin!

How much more in the Democratic tank could the Associated Press possibly be?

President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton are lending their political star power to an unlikely Democratic bid to win a special congressional election in an area that's been a Republican bastion for more than a century.
The Nov. 3 contest in upstate New York's 23rd Congressional District, a sprawling, 11-county area where registered Republicans outnumber Democrats by 45,000, is shaping up as a test of a struggling GOP and a possible gauge of Obama's coattails.
Obama, who carried the district by 5 percentage points in his landslide victory in New York last year, forced the special election when he named the incumbent, Republican John McHugh, his Army secretary. The president will host a fundraiser for the Democratic candidate, Bill Owens, later this month in New York City.
In a fundraising e-mail for Owens, Clinton called the special election "bigger than just one candidate or one office ... victory or defeat will also be seen as a referendum on President Obama's agenda." . . .

Yeah. Not even until the fifth paragraph that they mention either the RINO Dede Scozzafava or Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman.

Oh, please don't even get me started on Jazz Shaw of the woefully misnamed "Moderate Voice." (With alternative New Media like this, who needs the MSM?) And because Allah Hates Me, he goes out of his way not to link me at Hot Air. -- even after I went out of my way to toss him a softball chance to unload more snark on Sarah Palin.

Pause. Deep breath. Calm. I'm chopped liver, and chopped liver doesn't have feelings. (Blame Eric Telford.) For something truly interesting about the NY23 race, we turn to libertarian Jason Pye:

Scozzafava supports tax increases (refuses to sign a no tax hike pledge), bailouts, the stimulus bill (she would have been the only Republican to support it), card-check legislation, Cash-for-Clunkers, earmarks, the Davis-Bacon Act and the minimum wage. One of the more ironic twists of this race is the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) and Bill Owens, the Democratic Party nominee, are slamming Scozzafava as a tax-hiking liberal. Even Markos Moulitsas called Scozzafava "the most liberal candidate in the race." . . .
This reminds me of the 2004 GOP Senate primary in Pennsylvania between Sen. Arlen Specter and Rep. Pat Toomey. President George W. Bush and the Republican establishment behind Specter, raising money and campaigning for him. While the principled candidate was left behind.
While many conservatives and libertarians are looking for the GOP to get its act together, they are showing that they are still the party of big government.

Indeed. But for a more cheerful outlook, we seek refreshingly factual reporting, and find it from WTTI in Watertown, N.Y.:

Conservative Party congressional candidate Doug Hoffman opened campaign offices in Watertown, Plattsburgh and Canastota on Saturday.
In Watertown, the Lake Placid CPA rallied a group of supporters at the new office at 106 Court Street, telling them it's time to end the careers of career politicians.
"They want to tell you what you want to hear. And then they get elected and they do what they want to do to promote their career. We don't need more politicians like that," Hoffman told the cheering crowd.

A cheering crowd? For a candidate the Associated Press doesn't even mention until the fifth paragraph? I'm shocked!

More at Memeorandum. I might update later, after I go jab some more pins in my Erik Telford voodoo doll.