The Compost loathes Allen. They only commissioned this poll utilizing a discredited method to give the false appearance that this is a tied race. It simply isn’t. If it was, they’d have released the results for likely voters, and for that, I guarantee Allen leads by (at least) 10%.
The Washington Compost hates Allen more than America's worst enemies. This "news" operation literally made it their mission to destroy George Allen. They nurtured and promoted the "macaca" story with front page story after story to destroy Allen. To this day I don't even get what the big deal with saying "macaca" was.
Still, saying that, Allen handled it badly. Allen was a great governor and senator and I thought perhaps one day a strong Presidential candidate, but he really bungled the PR war on the whole "macaca" thing. It really would not surprise me if indeed he and Kaine are tied. As someone up thread mentioned, I do wonder if we might not have done better with a fresh face. This is Virginia so we have a lot of up and coming conservatives that might have made far better candidates. The Dem's put up their strongest contender and I wonder if we did as well.