Free Republic

If Virginia gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell thought he was going to get friendly treatment on "Fox News Sunday," he was in for quite a surprise. Fox host Chris Wallace grilled McDonnell - appearing without Democrat Creigh Deeds, who declined repeated interview requests from Fox - on topics from McDonnell's views on women in the workforce to whether he'll be able to fund road projects without raising taxes or cutting other services to child care. "If we do a good job on job creation and economic development, Chris, you don't cut anything because we expand the economy," McDonnell said. The GOP...

The Democrats are in a panic mode over the upcoming Virginia Gubernatorial race. November 3rd. the people head to the voting booths and the Democrats are calling this a critical election. They contend if the Democratic candidate, Creigh Deeds, loses there will be a stampede away from ObamaCare. Their big problem: Obama himself. In this AP photo Deeds is clearly running away from Barack Obama. Kimberley Stassel of the Wall Steet Journal says, “it’s guilt by association.” Just take a look at Deeds and Obama yucking it up. Deeds is “uh, er, Mista Pres-i-dent, how’s it hanging?” Obama is like,...

A Washington tell-all book is seldom a good place to look for political wisdom. But, whether he meant to or not, former White House speechwriter Matt Latimer’s new book, “Speech-Less: Tales of a White House Survivor,” makes at least one important point: politics should be about ideas, not personalities. Unfortunately, that hasn’t been the case recently. Conservatives coined a term, Bush Derangement Syndrome, to explain the fierce opposition many liberals had to George W. Bush personally. It wasn’t simply his policies they opposed, it was him. They hated the way he walked, the way he talked. He exhibited “faux cowboy...

Kim Strassel of the Wall Street Journal lays out the evolution of Virginia's Nov. 3 election for governor into a virtual referendum on Obama (my term, not hers). It is not going well for Obama, or for the Democrats' nominee, Creigh Deeds, despite a massive inflow of resources from unions and other Democrat moneybags. He has been successfully tied to Obama, to his visible discomfort. Blue dogs are watching closely. If Deeds loses, there will be a stampede away from ObamaCare. The stakes have become critical for the Obama administration. If Obama doesn't get some form of legislation passed by...

here may have been no period in our State’s history when the voters are more aware of what issues confront them in their choice for Governor. We have undergone the worst economic downturn since the Depression. I have previously set forth the things that I would look to see the next Governor address. (1) Who is best suited by temperament and training to govern in hard times? (2) Who has presented to the people realistic plans for Education, Transportation, Health Care, Public Safety and Social Services, etc.? (3) Who is strong enough to stand up for the state when tough...

  NEW JERSEY (RCP Average: Christie +6.7)*Christie leads by 7 in a new Rasmussen poll, with debates looming.*The Republican called Corzine's investment in a hedge fund with ties to casino license holders a "colossal error in judgment."*It's Obama/Corzine on at least one billboard.*Rep. Rob Andrews (D) thinks the health care debate helps Corzine.*Human Events says Corzine is in "disarray."VIRGINIA (RCP Average: McDonnell +4.5)*Deeds lays out his transportation plan in a Washington Post op-ed after taking heat from McDonnell for not having a plan. At a debate last week he was unclear whether he would be willing to raise taxes, though...

Virginia gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds is incomprehensive when is comes to raising taxes. He says he will not raise taxes - “general revenue” taxes that is. He is forced to admit he may need to raise the gas tax to fund transportation...

If you're a candidate for governor coming to debate in Northern Virginia, you'd better be able to say simply and plainly how you'd raise money to repair and improve the roads. Democratic State Sen. R. Creigh Deeds (Bath) failed to do that Thursday. In fact, he bungled it pretty badly. He managed to sound both vague and two-faced about the most important issue in the race for the Washington region. It's too bad, because as governor Deeds would be more likely to actually fix the roads than his Republican opponent, former attorney general Robert F. McDonnell. That's because Deeds is...

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...

The phrase "not raising taxes" means ONLY not raising taxes that go to the "general fund." But "everything else is on the table." He says clearly that when he says he will not raise taxes that he will raise taxes on gasoline. That's clear, right? Here's the video.

I can't believe this guy might be my next governor. Creigh Deeds, explaining his position on taxes, says at one point, "I'm not going to raise taxes, but I'm going to sign a transportation plan that raises new revenue." Then in the post-debate press conference, he says, within milliseconds of each other, "I have no plans to raise taxes" followed by "everything is on the table." Somewhere, John Kerry is watching this and saying, "See? It's not just me!"

The race to become the next governor of Virginia has gotten a lot closer. Right now, it’s effectively a toss-up between Republican Robert F. McDonnell and Democrat R. Creigh Deeds. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Virginia voters finds McDonnell attracting 48% of the vote while Deeds picks up 46%. Two weeks ago, McDonnell held a nine-point advantage. In August, McDonnell was up by eight. All of those figures include “leaners.” Leaners are those who initially indicate no preference for either of the candidates but answer a follow-up question and say they are leaning towards a particular candidate. Premium...

When Democrat R. Creigh Deeds began attacking his rival on abortion and other social issues in the Virginia governor's race, Republican Robert F. McDonnell refused to respond beyond saying that the actions were those of a desperate, flailing campaign.

The Washington Post on Wednesday expanded its attack on Virginia gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell, branching out beyond the Republican’s 1989 master’s thesis to a hit piece on the removal of a 2003 judge and whether or not it was because of homophobia on the part of the then-state delegate. The story centered around Verbena M. Askew, a Virginia judge who had been accused of sexually harassing a female colleague. Post reporter Amy Gardner, who has written or co-written four of the Post’s 12 anti-McDonnell articles that have run over the last 11 days, stated that the 2003 removal of Askew...

Via Greg L. at BVBL, it looks as if the "For Lease" signs are already up in what is/was the Deeds campaign offices in Prince William County: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIl9Gia6er8&feature=player_embeddedUPDATE: The WashPo's Monday Labor Day edition does little to dispel the notion that Deeds is pulling out of PWC, citing his struggle "against anonymity in Northern Virginia" which has led him to a strategy of shoring up what should be his natural constituency in small towns. The amount of time Deeds spends in rural Virginia has also worried some Northern Virginia supporters, who say it would be a mistake to assume that...

In my previous blogposts on the Washington Post news pages’ campaign to “Macaca” Virginia Republican governor nominee Bob McDonnell by running story after story on McDonnell’s 1989 Regent University thesis—Republican Governors Association operative Nick Ayers has noted 34 such pieces, including articles, blogposts, cartoons, editorials and on-line chats—I have purposely refrained from citing opinion articles, since after all opinion writers can legitimately try to influence readers and readers are on notice that this is so. But I’ll make an exception here for Metro columnist Robert McCartney’s Sunday analysis in which he argues, persuasively, that the McDonnell thesis isn’t likely to...

All summer long, Republican Bob McDonnell has been urging Creigh Deeds, his Democratic opponent in the governor’s race, to join him in a series of 10 debates across Virginia. Let’s debate the serious issues Virginia faces in the 21st century, McDonnell, the state’s former attorney general, said. Deeds’ answer? Here’s a 20-year-old, law-school thesis. Debate that. How truly pathetic. The Washington Post broke the “story” of McDonnell’s law school paper last week. Written while he was a law student at Regent University in 1989, he detailed his views on divorce, single-parent households, homosexuality, abortion and women’s rights. It was pretty...

The Washington Post on Wednesday increased its frenzied attack on Virginia gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell, featuring two stories in the paper’s Metro section, an op-ed and a cartoon. Including opinion pieces, the Post has delivered six articles in four days on the Republican's 1989 master’s thesis about families and government policy. In an article with the loaded title "McDonnell Tries to Salvage Women’s Votes," Rosalind S. Helderman and Sandhya Somashekhar described how the candidate is trying to "help rebuild his relationship with the key voting bloc, damaged in recent days by the publication of his 1989 master's thesis." Helderman and...

In the race to become the next Governor of Virginia, Republican Robert F. McDonnell retains a steady lead over Democrat R. Creigh Deeds. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Virginia voters finds McDonnell leading Deeds 51% to 42%. That’s little changed from a month ago when McDonnell held the advantage 49% to 41%. All of those figures include “leaners.” Leaners are those who initially indicate no preference for either of the candidates but answer a follow-up question and say they are leaning towards a particular candidate. The survey was conducted shortly after news stories broke about a thesis paper...

Virginia gubernatorial nominee Bob McDonnell's 14-point lead in the Public Policy Polling's survey one month ago has been cut in half. PPP's new survey finds the Republican leading Democrat Creigh Deeds by 7 points (Aug. 28-31, 596 RV, MoE +/- 4.0%). The survey was conducted over the last four days -- the last two days of the campaign have been filled with discussion about a graduate school thesis McDonnell wrote 20 years ago, which was reported in a front page Washington Post story on Sunday. McDonnell's favorable rating is unchanged from last month (54% down to 53%), though his unfavorable...