While all you’re saying is true, the situation was greatly exacerbated by his facing a highly popular former governor in Mark Warner, and the Obama wave that swept the entire country. At the time, Warner presented himself as a centrist, so moderates decided to take a chance on him.
Anyone would’ve been similarly blown off the field that year.
That wave of evil did not sweep the entire country. Here in neighboring Tennessee, we were quite immune and went the right direction (and West Virginia, for that matter). Still, no one loses a race like Gilmore did in 2008 without a demonstrable level of incompetence. First-tier candidates simply don’t perform that badly. I submit that had a candidate willing to run a balls-to-the-walls race tearing apart a giant phony leftist like Mark Warner, that race should’ve ended up more appropriately closer (52-47%), in keeping with Zero’s performance in the state.
The fact that Ed Gillespie, not exactly a Conservative paragon, practically knocked off Warner (in an environment where state Republicans were still hurting after McDonnell), showed how incompetent Gilmore’s run was.
Anyway, my singular point is annoyance that these guys who have mediocre to disastrous records (usually RINOs) think they’re deserving to be President, when they’ve made a mess of where they live. These guys and gals should be laughed off the stage. I think candidates for President should be drafted by the grassroots, not the other way around. Those that have actual accomplishments to their name, electoral or otherwise, should be called upon.
What’s really sad is that it was George Allen that should’ve been the shining star from the Commonwealth. It’s amazing how fast he crashed. The Senate turned out to be the last place he should’ve ended up. His strength was serving as Governor. Had Jim Miller, Reagan’s Budget Director, been the 1994 Senate nominee instead of the too controversial Lt. Col. North, he’d have beaten Robb that year and Allen would’ve been free to have made a return to the Governorship in 2001 instead of Mark Warner, or perhaps have even run for President instead of Dubya in 2000.