Interesting read

The WaPo has a very compelling article about the last two days of Dede Scozzafava's Congressional campaign and how she came to endorse the Dem Bill Owens.

I drew three insights from it. 1) It's interesting the level of White House involvement in gaining her endorsement. You can ask the question of their genuineness in the process, but it's also politically interesting that they saw heightening the "conservative" v. moderate Republican rift in this one tiny race as such an opportunity to impact the national narrative. (And it worked. This one little race has created a future political nightmare for those Republicans actually concerned with retaking the majority.)

2) Despite their loud mouthed power, there seems to have been no political machine on the tea-partier/"conservative" side. Despite all the noise, it was just a number of political opportunists juicing Scozzafava's demise for their own benefit. They don't have a machine or coordinator who can utilize Palin, Pawlenty, Club for Growth, etc, meaning that there will be lots of money and effort wasted on overlap and uncoordination.

3) The entire effort shows that right now the Republican internal mechanics are more calibrated towards pushing people out, while the pretty well coordinated Dem machine is still trying to lure people in.

Even though it's kind of an unimportant article, I'd recommend it as its subtexts feel expansive.