Make that “hard left candidates like Scozzafava in a district that could support a moderate conservative…” and I’ll buy it. But calling an Acorn-endorsed, union-endorsed, Margaret Sanger-awarded GOP candidate to the left of the Democrat a “leaner,” and assuming a traditionally Republican district calls for a right of center moderate, shows too much acceptance of conventional wisdom and media spin.

Hoffman started as an unkown polling in the teens, and finished down by five points in a race where the official GOP candidate, who had withdrawn and endorsed the Democrat, still got five percent of the vote. One thing that hurt him was not being fully prepped on local issues. Which is not admirable I admit, but also not surprising when a private citizen takes on career politiciasns in a short-run special election with no primary, In a regular election, either he’d have lost the primary or had time to get up to speed.