socialmedian: Lake Placid Revisited -- By: Robert Costa

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Lake Placid Revisited -- By: Robert Costa

Source: National Review Online

Nov 03, 2009

Summary

Last night, the upstate wind was cool, with just a hint of the winter chill to come -- the season when thoughts turn toward hockey. Doug Hoffman, the Conservative party candidate in New York’s 23rd congressional district, agreed. As the hour grew late and he made his final rounds of handshakes and hugs, something about the moment, and the cold air, stirred a memory.

“I think back to early 1980,” said Hoffman, as supporters buzzed around him. “That was around the time I first got involved with the Lake Placid Olympics.” As those games opened, Pres. Jimmy Carter was beginning his final, gloomy year in the White House. Ronald Reagan had just lost the Iowa caucus to George H. W. Bush and was jockeying for a good showing in the upcoming New Hampshire primary. And Hoffman, then a 27-year-old accountant, was working as a controller for the Lake Placid Olympic Organizing Committee, helping to supervise a $150-million budget. Hoffman, supporting a young family, had landed the job after a few years in the Army reserves and grad school.

It was a memorable experience, ...Read the full article

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