Hi, Gatewood. I agree completely, of course, that Hoffman was the more ideologically pure conservative. I also think, based on what I have seen/read, he was simply a more effective campaigner than Scozzafava, regardless of ideology. However, precisely because they were so very different politically, I think it defies common sense to assume that everybody who voted for her would have voted for Hoffman in her absence, simply because he would have then been the one with the '(R)' next to his name. In fact, I think it highly likely that Hoffman might have lost some votes if he was the official Republican candidate and was therefore seen as less of an outsider. This was a district in which voters were fed up and primed to throw off a century under the Party in power, which happened to be the GOP. The GOP saw this coming and could not agree upon the best way to deal with it. Hoffman v. Owns, sans Sozzafava, might have been a better, even closer contest but I do not think it would have guaranteed Republicans a win in NY-23.

I hope I did not present Owens's win as an "overarching victory for Democrats" -- such was certainly not my intention. My point was I think it is a mistake for Republicans to assume that they won an overarching victory last night based on America coming to its senses and realizing in them a clearly supeior ideology.

We agree completely as regards your concluding paragraph.