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Glenn Beck pushed for Doug Hoffman in NY-23. AP Photo Evan Agostini
As the year ends it is time to reflect on the top 10 Glenn Beck Moments of 2009. Beck has certainly provided a fair share of entertainment this year as he has become the most prominent Obama administration opponent.
For story #9 in which Jon Stewart does his own Glenn Beck impersonation click here.
For story #7 in which Beck's panel is left speechless by one of his conspiracy theories click here.
For story #6 involving Beck's screaming tirade against radio caller "Kathy" click here.
For story #5 in which Beck misspells a key acronym in his conspiracy theory click here.
Story #4 focuses on Beck's partnership with a young conservative named Doug Hoffman. Hoffman started gaining attention when he challenged the official Republican nominee, Dede Scozzafava in New York's 23rd Congressional district. Hoffman claimed that Scozzafava was too liberal to be a real Republican and that the voters of New York's 23rd would be better off with him as their candidate. New York's 23rd was a very strong Republican district. In fact Democrats had not won there since before the Civil War.
Casting himself as a conservative rather than a Republican Glenn Beck jumped into the controversy by officially endorsing Hoffman over Scozzafava. Sarah Palin and Fred Thompson also endorsed Hoffman and he suddenly started leading Scozzafava in the polls. This would force Scozzafava to quit just days before the election. Many assumed that this would lead to a sure victory for Hoffman who by this time had taken to adopting whatever viewpoints Glenn Beck held.
In fact what Hoffman and Beck managed to do was take a Republican stronghold and open it up to a Democratic upset. In the end the Democratic candidate Bill Owens (who had no realistic chance of winning before the Beck-Hoffman team entered the picture) ending up winning the race. Hoffman would concede the race to Ownes that night.
The story did not end there however. After being encouraged by Beck to un-concede Hoffman did just that announcing that in fact the election was somehow stolen by an ACORN run conspiracy. In fact ACORN did not even participate in the race but that did not stop Hoffman from using Beck's arguments. After the recount revealed that Hoffman had no chance of winning (as all the experts had predicted) Hoffman was forced to re-concede the race to Owens.
Conservatives like Beck would claim a moral victory in the race but Democrats were happy to have the seat. Practically the Owens victory mattered as he ended up voting for health care reform in a close 220-215 vote in the House. Owens victory may matter even more in when the House votes again on reform after the House and Senate bill are melded together. If the bill passed by 218-217 in the House the conservatives may have no one else to blame but Doug Hoffman and Glenn Beck for a successful vote on the bill.
Comments
This was an important lesson for the Republican Party, which has deserted it's conservative roots and promotes candidates who so closely resemble democrats that when the opportunity arises they will actually endorse a 'democrat' over a 'conservative'.
Those days are over. The republican party will represent conservatives or it will be deserted by them.
So what. A republican loses an election. That's a good thing. I say vote 'em all out. I don't see an ounce of difference between dems and reps. The republicans are just more big government. Remember "Contract with America"? Republicans killed that.
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