Bad boys, bad boys what you gonna do?
So, you’re going to walk into that voting booth on Tuesday, look at the touch screen with great determination and vote decisively, right?
Or maybe you’re gonna be like most of us and stare at the screen and wonder: Who the hell are these guys?
Some choice — Creigh Deeds or Bob McDonnell: A Democrat not ready for prime time versus a right-winger who wants to drag Virginia kicking and screaming back into the 19th century (or maybe even the 18th).
To borrow a quote from the late Kermit Salyer, once publisher of the Franklin News-Post, neither of these guys would make decent wash room janitors, much less governor of the Old Dominion.
Deeds has all the charisma of a wet mop and the leadership qualities of Elmer Fudd. If there was a mistake to be made in this campaign, he grabbed it.
For example, reports the web site Politico:
When Karl Rove set out to get George W. Bush reelected in 2004, he targeted the Expedition-driving, megachurch-attending, Panera-eating, McMansion-living voters in places like Loudoun County, Va. Bush won Loudoun with 56 percent on his way to a comfortable victory statewide.
On Tuesday, Republican Bob McDonnell will also win Loudoun on the backs of similar voters. These are fairly affluent voters who are new to the state and, most important, don’t have any strong party affiliation. They want efficient government but otherwise don’t have much time for or interest in politics.
McDonnell’s victory in Loudoun and in neighboring Prince William County will come as a surprise to many armchair pundits, who thought that all of Northern Virginia had became solidly blue. Many die-hard Democrats will blame Creigh Deeds’s lifeless campaign and the political environment.
But the truth is that Northern Virginia is often taken for granted as a powerful Democratic bloc. To be sure, Fairfax County has become solidly blue, but Loudoun and Prince William counties are more accurately full of independents who just happen to be supporting Democrats recently.
McDonnell is the Professor Harold Hill of politics. He sells himself as a moderate. He’s not. His right-wing extremism, bolstered by the GOP candidates for Lt. Governor and Attorney General, will haunt Virginians for the next four years.
Reminds me of an old bumper sticker that reads: “Don’t vote: It only encourages the bastards.”
All I can say Doug Thompson, is that “you and I are one” tonight as Spock would say while doing the Vulcan “mind meld”; ie., ”Don’t vote: It only encourages the bastards.”…!
One might be better served by thinking instead of reliance on ”mind melds.”
Reject irresponsibility and consider the advice of another bumper strip – “Bad officials are elected by good citizens who don’t vote.”
Look at it this way – who do you really think is in it for the people of Virginia and who do you think is in it for themselves or their party?
“will haunt Virginians for the next four years.”
More like a dozen years. This legislature will redistrict the state. Virginia already has a reputation for the least competitive house districts. This year’s re-elected incumbents pick their constituents. Again. Creigh Deeds has worked as a legislator for years to bring non-partisan redistricting to Virginia, and been thwarted by a Republican leadership perfectly happy to assure noncompetitive district elections. Bob McDonnell has recently said he supports non-partisan redistricting, but he hasn’t ever been the kind of guy to buck the party line. So look for even safer districts, fewer candidates challenging the status quo, and less voter choice with continued Republican control of the legislature.
I couldn’t agree more with your assesment of today’s elections. We have extremely poor choices. Deed has run one of the most inept campaigns I’ve ever sen. He hasn’t been able to solidify even the most traditional Democatic power bases around the state. If one can’t run a campaign, how does one plan to run the entire Commonwealth?! McDonnell’s talking points are scarier than the proverbial rabid bobcat in the kitchen. So once again we are faced with choosing between the lesser of two evils…
So now, I’m off to the polls… After that, I guess I run down to Kroger’s and “shoot my own food.” Those frozen Cornish game hens are rather elusive. And the 24 packs of Big K colas make for an excellent duck blind.