Say this for him, he's a Palin kind of guy (UK Guardian)

[Jackeens]

Sometimes you have to go really local to get the skinny. My friend BB in Albany sent me this article from the Watertown Daily Times in upstate New York, about how Doug Hoffman - he's the conservative candidate in the New York special congressional election we've been discussing, the one endorsed by S. Palin and others - not knowing his rear end from a hole in the ground when queried on some local issues by that paper's editorial board. Read this language and you'll agree he must have been really, I mean really, bad:

Douglas L. Hoffman, the Conservative Party candidate for the 23rd Congressional District, showed no grasp of the bread-and-butter issues pertinent to district residents in a Thursday morning meeting with the Watertown Daily Times editorial board. In a nearly hour-long session, Mr. Hoffman was unable to articulate clear positions on a number of matters specific to Northern New Yorkers rather than the national level campaign being waged in a three-way race for the vacant seat of now-Army Secretary John McHugh.

Mr. Hoffman spoke only generally about the need to improve the country's economy and to create jobs but provided no details, which were also lacking as well in his broadly stated willingness to help our military personnel. Help in what way he could not say. Regarding the proposed rooftop highway across the top of the district linking Watertown to Plattsburgh, Mr. Hoffman said only that he was open to studying the idea that has been around for years and will require federal financial assistance to complete.

Mr. Hoffman had no opinion about winter navigation and widening the St. Lawrence Seaway with their potential environmental damage. He was not familiar with the repercussions of a proposed federal energy marketing agency for the Great Lakes, which could pay for Seaway expansion contrary to district interests. A flustered and ill-at-ease Mr. Hoffman objected to the heated questioning, saying he should have been provided a list of questions he might be asked. He was, if he had taken the time to read the Thursday morning Times editorial raising the very same questions.

Zing!

I've seen this movie, haven't you? I'm sure the guy thought all he had to go was go in there and wail about Obama and government takeovers and say "low taxes" 57 times and he'd have it in the bag. But it turns out that local papers care about, you know, local matters. But I hear he knows a lot about Ontario because he can see it from his back porch.

The only downside here is that this may prove to be so discrediting that the national conservative money will abandon the guy, and if he totally collapses, the Republican could win. But in any case, what a boob.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/michaeltomasky/2009/oct/27/doug-hoffman-conservative-party

[burning rain]

1. Dick Armey referred to questions put to Hoffman on local issues, as "parochial."

Now that's some stupidly audacious spin--portraying the desire for a congressional candidate to be familiar with local issues, as a negative.