The race in New York’s 23rd district was mired in roadblocks for Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman, a mild mannered CPA not a “political rock star”, the largest and most egregious being the GOP establishment’s support for  liberal Republican DeDe Scozzafava. Scozzafava has been labeled a RINO or Republican in name only, and for good reason, before she dropped out of the race rumors were flying, saying once in office she might entertain the idea of switching parties. On top of that, the day after suspending her campaign, she publicly endorsed the Democrat in the race!?! This is where the GOP establishment’s support for her needs to be answered for… as Erick Erickson points out

I have said all along that the goal of activists must be to defeat Scozzafava. Doug Hoffman winning would just be gravy. A Hoffman win is not in the cards, but we did exactly what we set out to do — crush the establishment backed GOP candidate.

And make no mistake, despite the Beltway spin, we know for certain based on statements from the local Republican parties, that they chose Scozzafava based on advice from the Washington crowd.

So we have demonstrated to the GOP that it must not take conservatives for granted. The GOP spent $900,000.00 on a Republican who dropped out and endorsed the Democrat. Were we to combine Scozzafava and Hoffman’s votes, Hoffman would have won.

Michelle Malkin makes the case, as well, pointing out what I was saying in last nights liveblog — Doug Hoffman was polling at 20% two weeks ago… that he came to within 2 points of winning the seat is a testament to power and influence liberty and freedom activists, right of center bloggers, talk radio, so-called alternative cable news programs, and everyday Americans, like you, can have on a race and the party elite’s if we stand together and unite for the greatest cause of all… The return of free market, American first principles and values.

Hoffman’s candidacy illuminated the stark difference between GOP political opportunists willing to pimp out their endorsements to any old ACORN-embracing, Working Families Party-consorting, Big Labor crony who puts an “R” by her name — and movement conservatives who refuse to “mooooderate” for the politically expedient sake of mooooderation as dictated by out-of-touch Beltway party leaders. The NRCC/RNC’s $1 million debacle will cost much more than that.

As I’ve repeated many times over the last several weeks:

One thing is guaranteed at the conclusion of the NY-23 special congressional election: The Beltway Republicans who endorsed radical leftist Dede Scozzafava are going to have indelible egg stains on their faces. And GOP establishment fund-raising organizations will be the poorer for it.

Michael Patrick Leahy has the breakdown of the county numbers from last night citing “Scozzafava’s revenge” as the primary reason for the Hoffman loss and though I agree that was obviously a major factor, the fact remains this was a monumental screw-up on the part of the NRCC, the RNC, and Party elders who threw support, and almost a million dollars, behind a candidate who they clearly didn’t vet. Hoffman beat the Republican in 2009 and now has a clear path to beat the Democrat in 2010!

Switching gears to the other races — Republicans picked up major victories in both gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey. While the spin coming from Democrats, and their complicit mouth pieces in the dead tree media, is one of — “No big deal” as in the case ofDNC chair Tim Kaine:

DNC chair Tim Kaine spun away the big losses in Jersey and Virginia, saying wins historically go to the opposition party, and said in a statement that NY-23 “has exposed a war” within the GOP that’s a “disaster” and “will dog it well after today.”

… and the LA Times online headline which read:

Dem score congressional victories in California, N.Y.

From staff and wire reports | 9:42 p.m.

The GOP fares better in Virginia and New Jersey as both states elect Republican governors.

The Democrats did not lose a 2-1 squeaker last night. They lost two huge races, saw an overall evaporation of 25 basis points of support — and lost by nearly 500 thousand votes cumulatively in the three high profile elections

The Biggest looser of all, last night, was President Obama and his aptly named ObamaCare™ the deafening referendum was heard far and wide with last night’s vote and is most singularly personified by the title of Dick Morris’ column in today’s New York Post entitled A deathblow ObamaCare™

Then there was health care, named as the top issue by just 17 percent of New Jersey’s voters. Among them, Democrat Corzine won big, with 78 percent to Christie’s 19 percent. The problem was, health care was simply not an urgent enough issue to be the winning factor.

The results in both states show that voters’ concerns are strikingly different from those of the president and top leaders in Congress.

In final analysis, there are many lessons to be learned from last night’s elections. The following are two lists from two differing perspectives of way’s to think of Tuesday night. One from Marc Ambinder and the other form Paul Mirengoff @ Power Line.

First Ambinder:

11 Ways To Think About Tuesday Night

1. The White House has trouble melding its approach to governing, and standards of transparency and brand of being above politics, with a strong-arming White House political operation willing and capable of leading the Democratic party to victory.

2. Barack Obama’s political coalition is not invincible and it is not perpetual. The Obama election didn’t changed the fundamental political dynamics of off-year elections.

3. The White House’s time horizons are longer than and different than the time horizons of House, Senate and gubernatorial candidates. It was more important for, say, Creigh Deeds, to get a health care bill passed by August than it was for President Obama. Obama’s building a strong re-election coalition in 2012, but it’s going to be frustrating for Democrats in the short term. Obama’s approval rating in New Jersey was 57%.

4. The traditional, nonthreatening Republican economic message — lower taxes, less spending, more disciplined government — resonates better with independents than the Democratic message — we need to spend our way out of the recession.

5. Deep recessions are deadly for governors, who must balance their budgets by cutting spending deeply or raising taxes.

6. It’s very hard for Democrats to simultaneously turn out the Obama Coalition (younger, more liberal, more minority voters) and suburban independents (particularly older, particularly men).

7. Jon Corzine had record low approval ratings and very high disapproval ratings.

8. Chris Christie’s anti-corruption reputation and property tax pledges worked.

9. Creigh Deeds happened to be a Democrat in a state that bordered the District of Columbia. In July and August, when residents of the DC media market were saturated with an unflattering view of disputatious partisan Democratic infighting, with reports of bailouts and trillion dollar deficits, Deeds’s numbers among independents in this area — and pretty much only this area — tanked. He never recovered.

10. Since 1985, Virginia and New Jersey have always voted against the party in power in Washington in their sequential off-year elections.

11. Virginia’s mid-summer budget crisis hurt Democrats.

Now Paul Mirengoff:

The top five lessons from yesterday

1. The “independents” or “moderates” get it. That is, they seem to understand that the Obama agenda and those allied with it are bad news for the economy. Whether they understand HOW bad Obama is for the economy, and how much of a danger he poses to other things like, say, freedom, cannot be determined from last night’s results. But the independents are no longer nearly as taken in by the smooth talk as they were a year ago.

2. The era of succeeding by running against George Bush is over.

3. Intensity counts.

4. Far from being a post-racial figure, Obama is the most racially polarizing politician since George Wallace. The white vote shifted dramatically against the Dems. On the other hand, what did they expect after Van Jones, ACORN, and the rest of Dear Leader’s fellow “community organizers”?

5. Goldwater 2.0 is underway. That is, the Republican Party, which, in domestic policy, had been all but emasculated by Bush’s playing kissy-face with welfare state and corporate liberalism (No Child Left Behind, prescription drug benefit, cheap and easy money, bank bailouts, and more), is into the process of discovering that conservatism is its heart and its salvation.

Mickey Kaus posts his version of winners and losers:

Loser: Health care reform (see above) …

Loser: Obama, who tried to work his magic for Corzine and discovered it wasn’t there. (I don’t buy the ”he invested his prestige” line. A President is still allowed to try to help in a tight race. But he was clearly not a transformative presence in this one. It was more an Olympics bid situation.)

Winner: The Incumbent Rule–which holds that late-breaking voters do not go to the incumbent.  Tarnished in 2004, it’s having a Nixon-like rehabilitation in New Jersey.

Losers: E.J.Dionne, Walter Shapiro and others caught in the MSM negative-ads worked narrative (which just happened to favor the Democrat). …

Winners: ACORN, SEIU, voter fraud. A close election would have put the spotlight on them, no? I guess that could still happen in NY-23. … Corollary Loser: John Fund. A close election would have given him six months of well-paying work. …

Losers: Dems who were planning to argue that a Corzine victory, when contrasted with Deeds’ loss, shows the need to stick with “core Democratic values” (i.e. unions) …

Loser: Card check. Virginia Republican McDonnell didn’t fudge on labor’s “card check” bill. He bashed it. He won. Virginia is hardly a union state, but neither are the states with Senators who are swing votes on “card check”. …

Losers: Beck, Limbaugh, New Media conservatives who thought the rebellious Reaganite vote was bigger than it turned out to be in NY-23. … Also Dem-leaning MSM who were planning to use a rebellious Reaganite victory as demonstrating a tea-party takeover of GOP (as opposed to a botched candidate-selection process). …

Winner: GOP, because now that the rebellious Reaganites have had some serotonin leakage, they might be a bit easier to handle. …

Winner: Lawrence O’Donnell of MSNBC. Breath of sanity next to K. Olbermann …

In closing, I’d just like to take a second to thank each and every one of you who stood up for what you believed in, got active, and let the powers that be know that you… “will not go quietly into that good night” – that you will not accept the hand feeding and go-along to get-along — that you will not allow yourself to be treaded upon by the likes of big government and Party elitist’s – that you will fight against tyranny and creeping socialism by peacefully protesting and voicing your opinion and disdain at the  ballot box!!!

Liberty minded activists made a huge difference in this election and you should all be proud of the accomplishments we’ve made here, but don’t rest, the fight wages on…

Pack your bags, we’re going to Florida!!!