Keep telling yourself that.
I will, because I see it playing itself out in front of me, right before my very eyes. Doug Hoffman even calls himself a Republican - he certainly hasn't "left the party" - he merely participated in and gave the people the GOP primary that should have been had all along. He won it, and will win the election....and will be back in 2010 running on the GOP line right along with the CP line. the only reason he got anywhere is because big-name conservative Republicans brought his race to the spotlight - people like Sarah Palin and Fred Thompson and Rush Limbaugh and others, none of whom, btw, care for your third party drivel either. This election is proof positive that conservatives can wrestle power away from the GOP elite and win things on their own.
And guess what? "Conservative" (and I put that in scare quotes, because I consider you people to be moles and termites helping the Democrats) third parties had about diddly to do with it, except to give Hoffman a line on the ballot. For that, we thank the CP, but don't mistake that as some huge surge toward third parties. The evidence just isn't there.