Posted on 09/17/2009 6:27:21 PM PDT by HokieMom
Taxes and transportation were the focus of Thursday's debate in McLean between Virginia gubernatorial candidates Democrat R. Creigh Deeds and his Republican challenger Robert F. McDonnell.
Both candidates said they would not raise taxes, and in Mr. McDonnell's case, he was adamant with reporters after the debate that even if the Legislature passed a bill, he would not sign it as governor if it raised taxes.
Mr. Deeds quickly clarified his position to reporters after the debate, telling them that he would not raise taxes for the general fund but would keep things open in terms of raising taxes to fund transportation proposals.
The two candidates squared off in the auditorium at the global headquarters of Capital One for a little more than an hour in a debate moderated by David Gregory of NBC's "Meet the Press."
Mr. Deeds continued to assail Mr. McDonnell on his 1989 graduate school thesis that was critical of working women and gays and what he called his opponent's "narrow band of social issues."
However, the crowd grew visibly weary, audibly groaning when Mr. Deeds repeatedly brought up the thesis as proof that the Republican did not support working women.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Bolling for Lieutenant Governor
May the wind be at their backs, and onto victory in November!
McDonnell’s support remains a bit more solid than Deeds’. Eighty-one percent (81%) of those who plan to vote for the Republican candidate are certain they will not change their mind. Seventy-four percent (74%) of Deeds supporters say the same. Among those who are certain, McDonnell leads by seven percentage points. more
Deeds, McDonnell Clash in Gubernatorial Debate
McLEAN, Va. (AP) - Democrat R. Creigh Deeds said “a hint of racism” underlies some of the visceral opposition to President Barack Obama, even as he declined to identify himself Thursday as “an Obama Democrat.”
In a debate with his Republican rival, Bob McDonnell, Deeds also made his clearest statements yet in opposition to Obama’s “cap-and-trade” energy bill now before a Democratic Congress.
Debate moderator David Gregory of NBC’s “Meet The Press” asked Deeds whether he thought some of the opposition to the president in Virginia and elsewhere is racially motivated.
“I’d like to think in this country that we are beyond some things, but clearly there’s a hint of racism in some of the opposition to President Obama. That is crystal clear,” Deeds said near the end of the hourlong debate, the second of four in this campaign.
More: http://www.630wmal.com/Article.asp?id=1505634
Of course there's racism afoot around here ~ and Deeds intends to get his fair share of it.
After a debate where Deeds repeatedly tried to claim McDonnell didn’t respect women, Deeds was surrounded by reporters trying to figure out what he meant by his “won’t raise taxes”.
Every one of them asked the question again and again, because his answer made no sense.
But when an older female reporter asked him, he looked at her, took his time, and then said “I think I’ve answered that question, Young Lady”.
He then went back to giving respectful answers to the male reporters.
Deeds is sexist, but i hope we don’t have another campaign where the republican tries to paint the democrat as sexist.
People are really tired of that smear campaign. Most know it’s not true. Let’s hope for backfire.
McDonnell’s ad responding to the thesis charges
http://www.bobmcdonnell.com/index.php/media/player
Click on “Protect”
Gloves come off in Va. debate
Deeds, McDonnell spar over transportation, taxes
R. Creigh Deeds elicited audible groans when he hammered at his opponent’s 20-year-old graduate school thesis in the second and feistiest encounter between the Virginia gubernatorial candidates Thursday, seeking to press an issue that has tightened his race against his Republican opponent.
Robert F. McDonnell, for his part, drubbed the Democrat for his lack of a transportation plan in a session that was notable mainly for the intensity with which the candidates presented familiar positions on the core issues of transportation and taxes, and such hot-button issues as terrorism trials, gun control and immigration.
With Election Day less than two months away, the two were combative almost from the minute they began speaking, with Mr. Deeds immediately bringing up the 1989 thesis in which the Republican was critical of working women, abortion and gays.
Mr. Deeds, who has closed in most polls to within about 5 percentage points of Mr. McDonnell since the document became public, repeatedly cited the paper as evidence that the Republican is fixated on a “narrow band of social issues.”
But by the end of the hourlong debate at Capital One’s sprawling complex in McLean, soft groans could be heard from the audience of about 450 business-suited executives when the Democrat again offered the thesis as evidence that Mr. McDonnell doesn’t support working women.
Mr. McDonnell, who in recent weeks has repudiated some of what he wrote, fired back at the Democrat, noting that his eldest daughter has served as a platoon leader working with 25 men in Iraq.
Gubernatorial debate turns contentious in N.Va.
McLEAN - Familiarity may be breeding contempt in the Virginia governor’s race.
The second debate between Democrat R. Creigh Deeds and Republican Bob McDonnell featured the most pointed and prickly exchanges between the candidates to date.
The debate came as a new poll showed the race about even. The Rasmussen Reports telephone poll of 500 likely voters showed McDonnell at 48 percent and Deeds at 46 percent. The poll’s margin of error was 4.5 percentage points. Two weeks ago, McDonnell led by 9 percentage points.
During the Fairfax Chamber of Commerce debate, attended by several hundred businesspeople at Capital One’s Northern Virginia campus, both men saved their rhetorical firepower for the areas they perceive to be the greatest weakness in their rivals.
More at the RTD with slideshow
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