Virginia Dems wonder: Maybe we should have gone with McAuliffe
Posted by Bill Dupray
on Oct 13 2009 Filed under Politics.
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The body is not even cool yet. Hell, the election hasn’t even happened yet, and the Democrats are already trying to figure what went is going to go wrong. Now this is my kind of campaign.
Some may remember that Clinton White House Hotelier and Barista Terry McAuliffe ran for Virginia governor this year and lost in the primary to Creigh Deeds. Deeds had 50% of the vote with McAuliffe at 26% and Brian Moran at 24%.
The New York Times thinks that maybe the Virginia Democrats drew the short straw with Deeds.
But with this closely-watched election less than a month away, and Mr. Deeds struggling against Robert McDonnell, the Republican former attorney general, it is hard not to forgive some Virginia Democrats for thinking that they might have been better off with Mr. McAuliffe at the top of the ticket. This is no small thing since a defeat for Democrats in Virginia would be a decided setback for this White House, particularly after President Obama became the first Democratic presidential candidate to win the state last year since 1964. Democrats have held the Virginia governor’s seat for eight years.
Make a mental note here that the New York Times says that a Democrat loss in Virginia would be a ‘decided setback’ for the White House, because you sure as hell won’t hear that from any lefty after the election. It will be all about the weakness of Deeds as a candidate, it was the Republicans’ turn, Virginia has local issues that differ from national politics, blah, blah, blah. When Deeds loses, it will be a referendum on Obama, pure and simple.
Anyway, back to the Saturday morning quarterbacking on the Deeds/McAuliffe thing. The Times laments Deeds’ inability to slickly lie and conceal his liberalism. McAuliffe, they know, would have had no such trouble.
But based at least on his own performance as a candidate in the three-way Virginia Democratic primary — not to mention his years as a television and campaign surrogate for the Clintons — Mr. McAuliffe might well have had a decided advantage over Mr. Deeds in money and campaign skills, a view expressed by Democrats and Republicans alike.
Consider this: Perhaps the single most politically devastating moment for Mr. Deeds was when he gave a halting and fumbling answer, in a cluster of reporters and television cameras, about whether he would raise taxes to pay for repairing the state’s transportation system. Republicans have used clips from it to produce two of the most devastating advertisements of the campaign, raising questions at once about his views on taxes and his basic candor.
Mr. McAuliffe was given to his excess. But years of doing television interviews, on forums ranging from “Meet the Press” to scrums of local reporters — first defending the Clintons and than advancing himself and his party — paid off in producing a candidate who was an assured television presence.
Mr. Deeds seemed baffled by the question of whether he would raise taxes to pay for highway repair, one of the most fundamental questions of this campaign. Mr. McAuliffe, ever the student of the Clintons, had spent months evading the question with bland proclamations about having to find a revenue source.
Who knew that the Democrats’ problem was that they didn’t have enough liars?
Creigh Deeds seems to be a good, honest man. He will lose to McDonnell, to be sure. But the Democrats do themselves no favors listening to the likes of the New York Times and Terry McAuliffe. Because while Deeds may lose by 5-10 points, McAuliffe would have lost by twice that.
Related Posts
- McAuliffe Fading in Virginia Governor’s Race
- White House Hotelier and Barista Terry McAuliffe to Run For Virginia Governor
- Obama Backlash: Republican McDonnell Leads All Dems for Virginia Governor
- Republican McDonnell Widens Lead Over Dems in Virginia Governor’s Race
- Dems get Virginia Senate, GOP Keeps House. Is Virginia Officially Purple?
Short URL: http://libertypundits.net/?p=7560
“Who knew that the Democrats’ problem was that they didn’t have enough liars?”
Too funny!
They seem incapable of assessing/confronting why they are losing. I voted Deeds in the primary because he was the least of all dem evils, and I still prefer him to the alternatives of McAuliffe or Moran. Now I’m going to vote McDonnell in the general. Completely agree that McAuliffe would lose by twice as much.
And many folks will be switching sides next year in the midterms. Barack Obama is going to end up making Bill Clinton into an even bigger god in the Democrat party than he already is. Clinton was more moderate, and therefore appealed to a wide scope of people. Obama, Pelosi and Reid are radicals and I think Clinton fans thought they would be getting something similar. Boy must they have buyer’s remorse. The overrreaching of radicals always comes back to bite them.