Posted on 10/24/2009 4:45:45 AM PDT by Kaslin
As an old football player, I’m only too familiar with the phenomenon of the “Monday morning quarterback.” But the Democratic party, and specifically, the Obama White House political operation, have a new variation: They’re now doing Monday morning analyses in advance of the game. And in the case of the Virginia Governor’s race, the Democrats seem engaged in Friday mourning for their candidate, R. Creigh Deeds.
Virginia’s Republican gubernatorial candidate, Bob McDonnell, holds a comfortable lead in every published poll. McDonnell seems to have weathered the worst that the Washington Post could throw at him. The Post dredged up McDonnell’s Master’s thesis, written some twenty years ago, and tried to hang its clumsily-worded themes around the mature candidate’s neck.
The Post stories--which they stretched out for nearly a week of extensive front-page coverage--suggested that Bob McDonnell had a problem with women in the work force. McDonnell mildly replied that his wife--mother of his five children--and his daughter either had been or were currently in the paid labor force. McDonnell’s ads featured his daughter as a serving Army officer in Iraq. The point of the attack--that McDonnell was some kind of Neanderthal--never really interested Virginia voters. And when Creigh Deeds focused on this “issue” in his relentless attack ads, the strategy merely earned him the unenviable sobriquet “dirty Deeds.”
Deeds’ campaign seems not to have caught fire this fall. White House political operatives--on condition of anonymity, of course, are trying to discount the loss they anticipate in the Old Dominion. “Deeds ignored advice, White House says” reads the latest front-page headline in the Post. If you’re the team quarterback in Virginia, that’s hardly the press coverage you need to see less than two weeks from game day.
The story details how Deeds failed to reach out to “several key constituencies” in Virginia. The Barack Obama campaign in 2008 was the first Democratic presidential campaign to carry Virginia since 1964, so those national Democrats had earned some bragging rights, they felt.
What a difference a year makes. Then, it was all hope and change. Barack Obama’s well-oiled campaign in Virginia operated smoothly from 82 local election headquarters. The McCain campaign had only one state headquarters operation, and it was co-located with the national campaign.
But this year, Virginians’ attention is focused on a still anemic economy, on a health care takeover that has a majority of Americans deeply concerned, and on cap and trade (some call it “cap and tax”) legislation that threatens to cut into some key Virginia industries. Bob McDonnell’s focus on jobs, transportation, education, and taxes seems closer to Virginians’ real concerns and closer, frankly, to the earth, than Creigh Deeds’ airborne assault campaign.
McDonnell did not get flustered when Deeds launched blistering attack ads. Nor did he wilt under the harsh glare of the Post’s attention. He has been well-served by his calm, thoughtful, and sincere manner.
The Post’s coverage seems almost to concede the Virginia race. It quotes unnamed White House officials saying they see “almost no way” for Deeds to come from behind to pull out a win. Their effort now seems to be to isolate this defeat, if defeat it becomes, and maintain that any candidate who fully embraces the Obama administration’s ambitious plans will do just fine. What else could they say?
McDonnell, meanwhile, has gone out of his way to appeal to last fall’s Obama voters, many of whom are clearly having second thoughts about the mountain range of debt already run up by congressional Democrats. Sheila Johnson, a leading black businesswoman, is featured in a McDonnell TV spot. She’s a Democrat for McDonnell, she says.
Another key defection from the Deeds campaign is L. Douglas Wilder. Wilder, the first black Governor of Virginia, is widely respected in Democratic circles. Wilder has not endorsed McDonnell, but he has very publicly refused to endorse Creigh Deeds. His statement explaining his reasons laid out stinging criticisms of the Democrats’ struggling candidate.
Conservatives should not slack their efforts in Virginia, or in any of the other key races--New Jersey’s governorship or New York’s 23rd congressional district. Abraham Lincoln spoke for us when he dismissed Union General Joe Hooker’s bragging. “May God have mercy on General Lee, for I shall have none,” Hooker said days before the battle of Chancellorsville. Hooker went on to a humiliating defeat there. Lincoln saw it coming, saying of Hooker’s boastful talk: “The hen is is the wisest of birds; she only cackles after she has laid the egg.”
Now is no time for cackling. It’s the time for hard work.
http://www.bobmcdonnell.com/ for Governor
http://www.billbolling.com/ for Lieutenant Governor
http://www.cuccinelli.com/ for Attorney General
It’s get out the vote time.
DO. NOT. BECOME. COMPLACENT. !!!!
The GOTV effort is crucial. We want the margin to be as wide as possible. And we want coattails to drag as many House of Delegates candidates over the line as we can.
Wonder if any will be listening?
Here is the article I was referring too.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/10/23/democrat-blasts-white-house-for-anonymous-sniping/
I suspect VA will be ignored and the NJ results hyped if the Dems lose in VA but win in NJ. I don’t think they will hear the message at all
I just wonder how some of these “moderate” Dems are going to vote on healthcare and cap and trade given this August and the upcoming races. I suspect some may be listening but I agree that the Democratic leadership as a whole is whistling passed the graveyard. Hopefully they get the message in 2010 when it is too late to do anything about it.
Rush brought up the fact yesterday that the post was using Mcdonalds Thesis from 20 years ago but they dont mention the Marxist in the White Houses Thesis about how the Founding Fathers never talked about Redistribution of wealth,as Rush poited out yes they did ,they were against it .
any hope of daggett puling out to throw support over to christie?
it looks like those indie votes hand the election to corzine?
which would suck.
Here in MN, after overriding the Governor's veto, the Democrat Legislature in 2007, at the height of the gas price hike, passed a gas tax increase that 65% of Minnesotans said they opposed.
Then in 2008 all these angry Minnesotans went right to the polls and expanded the tax hiking Democrats majority in the Legislature.
They re-elected the same set of politicians that were busy wrecking their paychecks while firing some of the guys who defended their paychecks
Excellent advice.
This is the template for Republicans in 2010....get Dems who are disillusioned with Obama on TV. This will tell some of the holdouts that it is OK to come out against Obama....you are not racists.
Republicans should follow McDonnell's lead....focus on issues, spending, etc.....all the conservative planks.
do this and we can really damage Obama this year and next.
Virginia will be a Republican win...New Jersey will be a Democartic win and New York NY-23 will be a suprise Democratic Win because of the Republican and conservative candidates splitting votes. My prediction...we will see what happens.
I think you hit the nail on the head...yesterday’s WaPo article was the official Democratic benediction on the Deeds race, and the first attempt to separate the “Annointed One” from the defeat.
Truth is, Deeds ran as an Obama Democrat, supporting all the “right” issues and launching vicious attack ads on Bob McDonnell. What will be interesting is Deeds’ response to the Post article—and criticism from the Obama camp. My guess is that Deeds will be rewarded with some ambassadorship or similar high-level post. So, he’ll go quietly into the night, and avoiding besmirching “The One.”
As a Virginia REP; Those are my 3
“Nor did he wilt under the harsh glare of the Post’s attention.”
Very, VERY important. Allen made a huge mistake by continuously responding to the stupid “macaca” thing which just kept him on the defensive and open to further attacks. I’m glad that McDonnell didn’t make the same error.
I think Deeds might be doing better if his name didn’t make him sound like an inbred axe murderer.
The way this White House throws people under the bus, all in order to save their own hides, is stupendous.
Sound advice.
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