Posted on 11/10/2005 4:02:20 AM PST by johnny7
RICHMOND -- President Bush's sinking popularity helped seal Democrat Timothy M. Kaine's victory in Virginia's gubernatorial election Tuesday, politicians and pollsters said yesterday. "We know that George Bush is just killing us," said Delegate David B. Albo, a Republican who narrowly defeated his Democratic challenger in Fairfax County. "His popularity just brought the ticket down. There's no other way to explain it."
Mr. Kaine, the current lieutenant governor, defeated Republican Jerry W. Kilgore by six percentage points in a contest that had been a statistical dead heat in the days before the election.
(Excerpt) Read more at insider.washingtontimes.com ...
Absolutely --- the winning ticket is "cut the damn spending, lower taxes and a steel curtain border policy."
You may think that but I happen to know that the poverty on the Eastern Shore of VA is out of sight. Only recently have homes had indoor plumbing and I am sure there are other areas just as bad.
In the case of Perot - it was Perot. His "candidacy" was for the sole purpose of disrupting Bush 1's re-election. After seeing to it that Bush wasn't re-elected, Perot proceeded to snipe at Clinton.
IMO, if you're going to be a party-pooper, don't snipe at the results.
BTW, when Dole ran, the opponent was Clinton and in that race I would agree, Dole shot himself in the foot. He ran a weak campaign
In other words, he is a self-promoter. As is Ralph Nader, etc. etc. etc.
My narrow point is that casting blame to others for not winning elections is responsibility-avoidance and counterproductive. Political parties are like businesses. If you want the most customers (and there -is- competetition) you need to tailor your product and marketing in order to win. If you don't win, it's your own fault, not the competition's fault.
I blame the GOP for losing to Clinton, twice.
I blame the GOP for losing to Clinton once. I blame Perot for the first loss. He got into the race totally clueless and dropped out after about 5 months as the result of the backlash form African Amnericans who objected to his use of the phrase "you people" in a speech.
But, after he got out, he discovered that Bush 1s poll numbers went way up because the people who planned to vote for him switched back to Bush. After a hiatus of about two months, he re-entered the race and it was clear that his sole intent was to be a spoiler to Bush 1s re-election.
Those statistics--chosen to promote the Eastern Shore--illustrate a region trying to play catch-up from very far behind.
Oh yea, well we just moved from that area and we have family in that area and the only reason that it appears that the poverty is shrinking is because of all the rich people moving in paying unbelievable prices for ground and building huge homes. The poor are still poor and they are local.
As long as they don't blame Bush for NJ. We like to take credit for our own stupidity. We are proud of it.
He also forgot latinos completely. Whether we want them to vote or not, even illegals probably saw the ads on latino TV stations that Kaine had on, as there were at least 5 each night for a week prior to the election, and Kaine even spoke spanish to the audience, clearly and well. I suspect that there are more of them than blacks, even, and they never heard a word from Kilgore. I emailed the campaign, and didn't even get a response.
MSM garbage.
I know you are... my ex in-laws are from Mountainside.
No its not... its the Washington Times.
Bush didn't sink the GOP in VA, Kilgore ran a sloppy campaign.
So this whole notion that President Bush is wholly responsible for sinking the GOP in Virginia is bunk.
Philosophically, Republicans are far superior to their counterparts. Tactically, the party seems stuck on stupid. We need new leaders to take control of the message and its delivery. The chemistry has ceased working well.
"The fact that Kilgore sounded an awful lot like Gomer Pyle on his ads didn't help much with those Virginians that didn't know much about him."
I've thought much the same thing - nobody else has commented on it. Face it- There is no way a "sophisticated" Northern Virginia voter is going to vote for someone who sounds like a hayseed with slicked back hair....too working class!
I seriously believe this sort of classism impacted the results.
Some people are pushing to make Coburn president. I had asked to be on his ping list. Funny thing. No pings yet, and it's been over a month. Ah well. Looks like George Allen is getting the green light anyway.
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