This morning, Michael Barone joined a number of American Enterprise Institute fellows for a briefing on the 2009 elections. One of the more interesting observations from Barone — the editor of the Almanac of American Politics and a writer for the Washington Examiner — was that potential 2012 GOP presidential candidates were making smart decisions by backing Doug Hoffman, the Conservative Party candidate, in the New York 23rd Congressional District special election.
“The Republican candidate, Dede Scozzafava, is a pretty dodgy character from a Republican point of view,” said Barone. “I mean, this is a woman who was endorsed by the Working Families Party, which is basically front for ACORN … As we’ve seen, it’s an organization whose organizations have systematically aided and abetted child prostitution, as reported in the videos that Fox News ran — that other networks were finally forced to run, that Andrew Breitbart put on the Big Government Website. There is some reason for principled Republicans not to back the Republican nominee in a situation like that.”