Posted on 12/13/2009 1:33:29 AM PST by Yomin Postelnik
Last month, Americans watched as Virginia and New Jersey elected two new governors. While the lessons of both campaigns are still being dissected, virtually everyone agrees that Chris Christie profited most of all from having a terrible incumbent as an opponent. The real lessons for political candidates in competitive races stem from Virginia’s Bob McDonnell.
McDonnell didn’t just win big. He helped his party win every statewide seat with on coattails. The talking heads chalk up his astounding victory to his singular focus on jobs and the economy. And as usual, the talking heads are 100% wrong.
To be sure, McDonnell’s message of jobs and economy did work. Equally certain is the fact that these are prime concerns for Virginia voters, who’ve elected Democrats to the mnost prominent statewide offices since 2001 (with the exception of Senator John Warner’s unopposed reelection in 2002). But there is another factor to McDonnell’s victory that far too many pundits have ignored.
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
How the heck do you write so much bro : )
I have a good wife who refuses to hit me over the head with a frying pan - as I would so richly deserve.
Thanks :)
Keep doing what you do brother...-huck lol
Thank you very much bro!
Yeah, I’ll grant that McDonnell ran a great campaign, but (as a native Virginian) I think that I can say that the real reasons he won were because:
1) Creigh deeds was a bad candidate, and being a white guy, Virginia’s black community did not go out of their way to vote for him, even though he showed up at their biggest churches begging for votes the Sunday before election day.
2) Northern Virginia aside, Obama is becoming widely despised throughout the Commonwealth. His radical liberal policies are hitting home right now, especially cap & tax, which already has the coal fields of Southwest Virginia in an uproar with a number of mine closures, courtesy of the EPA. Obama dragged deeds down even further, as the Democrat “brand” is quickly becoming poisonous, even in parts of Northern Virginia.
>> shined threw <<
Stopped reading right there.
What McDonnell has to do now is govern well and avoid scandal.
Went by AP guidelines - Direct object = shined; indirect = shone. As the context was a specific persona, “shined” is the best. (Some say that the difference is UK vs US language, but that’s incorrect).
Either way, not sure shore wat da big diel iz.
I agree 100%. But I don’t think that those factors alone who have given him an 18 point victory and the clean sweep of all statewide seats (while the clean sweep was possibly solely due to the factors that you cite, I think that it’s equally likely that McDonnell’s popularity pushed at least one of those over the margin).
Btw, did you see the comedy night video with McDonnell, Deeds, McAwful and Moran? If not I’ll try to pull it up. As a Virginian, I think you’ll enjoy it.
Here it is. Hilarious - you’ve got lively candidates up there. And the one who got elected may well turn out to be a national leader (though not because of this video :) ).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOp-js7g2gk&feature=related
One result is scaring the crap out of Jim Webb.
For reasons I don’t understand, he has started running TV ads that make him sound conservative.
Good thread here for a Virginian.
McDonnell won big for exactly the reasons the author said—plus one more.
He ran a relatively positive, affirmative campaign. He said what his values were. He spent less money on ads about what bad people the liberals are.
Republicans, in my view, cannot win by running down the feelings and loyalties of the electorate. “We are all Americans” is the winning message. “We are being led down the road to hell by the Democratic Party” may be true in the minds of some of us, but it is not a campaign winner.
Negative messages about the Democrats plays well on Free Republic, but the Democrats include a lot of my neighbors and family. To me they seem to be as loving and compassionate a group as a person would ever hope to know.
I certainly have no hope of ever getting them to vote for a candidate who shows so much disrespect for their loyalties.
Bob McDonnell did a good job. Lets follow up with a state-wide move toward a positive, affirmative and fearless presentation of conservative values.
What's that?
Good points and very thorough - maybe one of the best succinct analyses I’ve seen on recent Virginia trends.
Kilgore and Allen lost in squeakers though (both were thought to have won as counting started). Deeds was a terrible candidate and there were certainly many factors in McDonnell’s win. But some of those are the same reasons that McDonnell’s now being looked at as a national candidate. He ran a great race and I hope that he governs well.
Thanks! I learned something new. I’ve certainly seen Godwin’s law in action and didn’t know there’s a term for it. The scenario it describes occurs far too often.
If not, you are through as a writer.
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