Posted on 10/18/2009 10:21:04 AM PDT by freespirited
Today’s Washington Post endorsement of Democrat R. Creigh Deeds in the Virginia gubernatorial race is no surprise, given the Post’s determined and months-long effort to “macaca” Deeds’ opponent, Republican Bob McDonnell. But the editorial endorsement is a self-parody of liberal hyperbole and inconsistency.
The Post again raises the strawman of McDonnell’s 1989 graduate dissertation, apparently cribbing from Ted Kennedy’s infamous denunciation of Robert Bork’s nomination to the Supreme Court.
On July 1, 1987, within an hour of Bork’s nomination, Kennedy delivered a fiery speech saying, “Robert Bork’s America is a land in which women would be forced into back alley abortions, blacks would sit as segregated lunch counters … and the doors of the federal courts would be shut on the fingers of millions of citizens for whom the judiciary is – and is often the only – protector of the individual rights that are the heart of our democracy.”
Today’s Post says of McDonnell, “The clamor surrounding his graduate dissertation from 1989, in which he disparaged working women, homosexuals, "fornicators" and others of whom he disapproved, has tended to obscure rather than illuminate fair questions about the sort of governor he would make. Based on his 14-year record as a lawmaker -- a record dominated by his focus on incendiary wedge issues -- we worry that Mr. McDonnell's Virginia would be one where abortion rights would be curtailed; where homosexuals would be treated as second-class citizens; where information about birth control would be hidden; and where the line between church and state could get awfully porous. That is a prescription for yesterday's Virginia, not tomorrow's.”
Did the macaca stick again? Has the Post succeeded in doing to Bob McDonnell what it did to George Allen? No.
The reason behind the Post's tactic - and why it fails - is very simple. McDonnell has run a very effective campaign tying Creigh Deeds to Barack Obama, whose spending spree hyperliberal politics has alienated many Virginia voters. It’s fair: Obama didn’t run against John McCain, he ran against George W. Bush. And Deeds hasn't done anything to convince anyone that he isn't an Obama Democrat.
Defending Deeds, the Post says in the same editorial that, “Mr. McDonnell has sought to corner Mr. Deeds by focusing on debates in Washington over energy policy, labor union membership and other contentious federal issues. But a governor of Virginia can do little to influence the ideologically charged debates raging on Capitol Hill.”
Ok, Posties: you can’t have it both ways. Either you want your readers to believe that national abortion policy and homosexual "rights" laws are controlled from Richmond, or you don’t. Either you want them to believe no Democrat should be held accountable for supporting President Obama’s policies, or you believe – as you said you did all through the 2008 presidential campaign – that the members and supporters of a national leader should be held accountable for everything he and his party does and says.
You can’t have it both ways. Not this time.
WaPo post-endorsement ping.
Actually what seems to be the problem based on what I am reading of the VA media, McDonnell actually has an agenda and plans to address VA issues, Deeds has none.
When I used to subscribe, I wrote out my monthly checks to the “Washington Lying Thieving Post.”
They cashed every last one of them.
I view that as an admission.
Good for you, and I agree with your conclusion :)
http://www.bobmcdonnell.com/ for Governor
http://www.billbolling.com/ for Lieutenant Governor
http://www.cuccinelli.com/ for Attorney General
Deeds advisers say they will continue to tag McDonnell with the thesis and his service on the board of Regent University, the conservative Christian school where the Republican wrote the paper, but that they would also move more aggressively to tailor kitchen table issues to the state’s distinct regions. That means schools and roads in traffic-clogged northern Virginia, an emphasis on education in heavily-black Richmond and the Tidewater area and a jobs message in economically hard-hit southwest Virginia.
Now, I am the first to admit the Eastern Shore is but a minuscule section of VA, but daggonit, we've got all of those same problems just in this one little corner and are all but ignored.
I attend a very small church, and most of the folks do tend to trend Dem, but even they are about over being ignored. There are no Deeds' signs in the yards of those who normally have Dem signs. The Delegate race signs are there, but no statewide race signs at all (I'm the exception, with all the R signs in my yard. LOL)
OK, end of regional rant :)
Why anybody would expect any other than a liberal endorsement from a known liberal editorial page escapes me.
The benefit of complaining about it everyday also escapes me.
Why not invest the resources into alternate media, eg a print equivalent to Fox?
If the Deeds people approach me at the polling place, I intend to tell them how disgusted I am with the attack on Regent University. It’s just beyond the pale.
Virginia’s Washington, D.C. suburbs, where one-third of voters reside, have gone from being a battleground region to a Democratic bulwark in recent elections, making it dangerous to write off Deeds just yet.
I believe this is wishful thinking. In a race for the county executive in Crazy Fairfax earlier this year, the GOP candidate came close to winning. The GOP did win a special election for a county council seat there. And Rep. Frank Wolf has had no trouble holding on to his seat for many years.
I dont expect NOVA to go for McDonnell, but I dont think Deeds will get nearly as high a percentage of the vote as this writer wants us to believe.
Brilliant! If only the bank still returned checks, you could make a great work of art from the cancelled checks. And sell it for a fortune on eBay.
Actually, Washington, DC does have a viable and effective conservative alternative to the WaPo: The Washington Times.
LOL! That's a really good idea.
This is from about 20 years ago. I wonder if I still have the canceled checks...
sitetest
There is ... the Washington Times. It's only able to survive financially because the owner, Rev. Moon (the Korean Unification Church) underwrites the losses. In addition, the free Examiner newspaper (not just in DC, but in most major cities) is conservative.
The Washington Post sells 6 or 7 copies, however, for each copy the Washington Times sells. As bad as the Post's finances are, I doubt the Washington Times has ever come close to breaking even, let alone earning a profit.
Jack
I don’t expect any Deeds people to approach me at the polling place, but if any Democrat does, I will hit them with both barrels -— Regents and ignoring the Eastern Shore.
I’ll pick this up later, I’m due back at church to serve dinner for our fall pancake supper!!!
Maybe I can convince some of my Dem friends that McDonnell is more of a friend to the Shore than Deeds :)
And, like their comrades, they are less and less listened to and less and less effectual. Ain’t it too bad?
“I dont expect NOVA to go for McDonnell, but I dont think Deeds will get nearly as high a percentage of the vote as this writer wants us to believe.”
Jonathan Capehart or Eugene Robinson perhaps? Both are on the WashPo Editorial Board and both are VERY frequent guests on MSNBC.
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