I see Fox News has projected Owens the winner over Hoffman; the projection caused me to rewrite this post because I was about to publish that Hoffman was running out of precincts, with a huge chunk of uncounted precincts in counties breaking heavily for Owens.
It's not that big an upset because Owens had been narrowly leading during the intraparty war between Hoffman and Scozzafava, the GOP nominee in several pools, and in fact, the district overall had, in fact, voted blue in other races (e.g., pro-Obama). I am mildly surprised because most of the polls I saw showed Owens consistently in the mid-30's in polls and more recent posts showed Hoffman with the momentum.
I think given the fact that a month ago Hoffman was polling dead last in a field of three, and given the chaos of last weekend when Scozzafava withdrew and threw her support to Owens, Hoffman's results came closer than most had a right to expect.
But let's face it: Hoffman is not an experienced politician and did not come across well on dealing with local issues. He was not that charismatic a candidate. I have no doubt that the GOP will be lining up a more appealing group of candidates, and Owens will serve only one year in office.
Christie's gubernatorial victory in New Jersey was stronger than expected as independent Daggett only captured about 5% of the vote. I was concerned about Corzine, deeply unpopular because of sky-high property taxes, might pull it out with Daggett bleeding support from Christie. As a fat man, I was annoyed by Corzine's unkind observation about Christie's weight.
McDonnell's near 20-percentage-points in Virginia, leading a sweep of three Republicans on a statewide basis and the first GOP statewide winners in years, was inspiring. The fact that Obama's efforts to boost the two losing gubernatorial elections, particularly New Jersey, a heavily Democratic state, went nowhere is a lesson not lost on Blue Dogs.
Political Cartoon
Another great cartoon by IDBE's Michael Ramirez. I might add that Pelosi-Reid-Obama health care snake oil is imported from Canada or Europe, and all sales are final.
Musical Interlude: My Favorite Elton John Song
There is no nothing on earth more glorious than the beauty and promise of an infant, born or preborn. Elton John perfectly captures, in this beautiful ballad, one of the few things in common among people across the globe: the anticipation of a child's birth, unconditional love and the dreams of his or her better future.
