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the subtitle of the endorsement reads His transportation realism and Mr. McDonnell's bogus roads plan present Virginians with a stark choice on Nov. 3.
This is one week earlier than the Post endorsement the past two gubernatorial cycles. It will be interesting to see its impact.
In the meantime, join me below for highlights of the piece, which concludes Mr. Deeds, lagging in the polls, lacks Mr. McDonnell's knack for crisp articulation. But if he has not always been the most adroit advocate for astute policies, that is preferable to Mr. McDonnell's silver-tongued embrace of ideas that would mire Virginia in a traffic-clogged, backward-looking past. Virginians should not confuse Mr. McDonnell's adept oratory for wisdom, nor Mr. Deeds's plain speech for indirection. In fact, it is Mr. Deeds whose ideas hold the promise of a prosperous future. |
| There is a LOT of focus on McDonnell's having persistently opposed the policies of Mark Warner and Tim Kaine that have gained Virginia its high reputation as the best-governed state, the best in which to do business, and so on.
The Post hammers on a number of points. Let me offer a few snips to give a sense:
Mr. McDonnell has staked out the intolerant terrain on his party's right wing, fighting a culture war that seized his imagination as a law student in the Reagan era.
And rather than leveling with Virginians about the cost of his approach, as Mr. Deeds has done, Mr. McDonnell lacks the political spine to say what programs he would attempt to gut, or even reshape, in order to deal with transportation needs.
lacks the political spine - ooh, that has to sting.
Why Creigh's Post op ed was so important: It is fantasy to think that the transportation funding problem, a generation in the making, will be addressed without a tax increase. A recent manifesto from 17 major business groups in Northern Virginia, calling for new taxes dedicated to transportation, attests to that reality. This is a point that the Deeds campaign should be hammering in advertisement in NoVa in the remaining 2+ weeks.
The Post notes Democratic criticism of the Deeds campaign for the focus on the negative, and not making the positive case for himself, and then offers If so, it reflects a failure of campaign strategy and tactics, not a lack of raw material. In fact Mr. Deeds -- a decent, unusually self-effacing man who calls himself "a nobody from nowhere" -- has a compelling life story and an admirable record of achievement as a legislator from rural Bath County.
The editorial acknowledges McDonnell's skills as a politician, calling him "dextrous" at the same time emphasizing the difference on policy. Let me quote again: Based on his 14-year record as a lawmaker -- a record dominated by his focus on incendiary wedge issues -- we worry that Mr. McDonnell's Virginia would be one where abortion rights would be curtailed; where homosexuals would be treated as second-class citizens; where information about birth control would be hidden; and where the line between church and state could get awfully porous. That is a prescription for yesterday's Virginia, not tomorrow's.
Congratulations to Creigh Deeds on earning this strong endorsement. Now let's all work together and go out and win this thing! |
