The Washington Post Loses in Virginia

[cwo_ghwebb]

How their effort to beat McDonnell backfired.

Bob McDonnell won big tonight in the Virginia gubernatorial race, as did the entire Virginia Republican party. The implications of the race will be sorted out soon enough. But one big loser is the Washington Post which may unwittingly have helped the Republican, despite their best efforts to put his opponent over the top.

On the last weekend in August the Post ran the first of dozens of stories about McDonnell's 1989 masters' thesis, in which he wrote, among other things, that working women were detrimental to families and that government should favor traditional marriage over gay unions. While they didn't know the exact target, the McDonnell camp was expecting, as one top adviser put it, a "hatchet job" from the Post. A top campaign strategist says, "We always knew we'd have to fend off some attack from the Post, probably on a social issue. But in all candor we didn't expect the thesis. It was a 20 year old paper."

The Post was off and running, harping on the story for weeks. It was, some conservatives feared, a replay of the infamous "macaca moment" (a more successful Post election obsession) which helped sink George Allen's 2006 Senate campaign.

The McDonnell camp quickly made some critical tactical decisions. First, the Monday after the story broke McDonnell held a 90-minute media call to explain his views, and answer all questions. Second, rather than respond to every potential allegation they focused on the most potent one--that McDonnell was hostile to working women. His TV ads focused heavily on this issue, featuring testimonials by his daughters and women who had worked for him.

Larry J. Sabato explains that "the thesis story actually helped Deeds at first. For nearly a month the contents of McDonnell's thesis closed the gap to a near-tie." But then Deeds went, as one party insider says, "bonkers" over the issue, badly overplaying his hand. McDonnell communications director Tucker Martin says, "It was like someone threw a tennis ball over the fence and we all watched the Labrador Retriever race after it, leaving the whole yard to us." Deeds rolled out TV ads and a Twitter feed devoted to the thesis and even organized books clubs to conduct "readings" of the thesis.

One McDonnell adviser says that it took a "lot of discipline" both to narrow the focus and to continue to stick to his positive, issue-oriented message. One day no fewer than 11 Post editors and reporters peppered the campaign with thesis queries.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Conten...7/162ttlen.asp

Deeds really ran an incompetent campaign. It didn't help that Obama threw him under the bus earlier.

[ImnoMensa]

Originally Posted by cwo_ghwebb

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Conten...7/162ttlen.asp

Deeds really ran an incompetent campaign. It didn't help that Obama threw him under the bus earlier.

I think a pretty good message was sent last night, I only hope Democrats voting on a health care bill that is a monstrosity and a Cap and Trade bill that is an economic killer will pay attention. Their feet are not in concrete.

[awpitt]

The only message that was sent last night is that VA continued doing what it has done since the 70's.

They elect governors from the party opposite the party that controls the White House.




.

[Baja28]

Originally Posted by awpitt

The only message that was sent last night is that VA continued doing what it has done since the 70's.

They elect governors from the party opposite the party that controls the White House..

And all the other dems that were unseated?????

[awpitt]

Originally Posted by Baja28

And all the other dems that were unseated?????

Well, in the other big race, Corzine got canned. He was on a downhill trend ever since his car accident in 2007. He's been very unpopular in NJ even before Obama was elected to the WH.

[chernmax (Premo)]

IMO this race was not about a Republican win because it needed the Independent and conservative Democratic voters to win, this election was more about restoring a balance to a left wing agenda that America cannot stomach!

[SamSpade]

I have my own opinions about Republicans and Democrats which I am certain that the Dems on here would absolutely disagree with - but I think proportionately, conservatives are far more likely to vote, far more likely to be somewhat well-read on issues, and are more likely to be in tune to respond to call in shows, radio broadcasts and so forth. I first noticed this on C-SPAN, where they had to break down the callers by party because if they didn't, most of the callers would be conservative and they couldn't balance their coverage.

Because I think this, I believe conservatives are more likely to go to the polls in an off year. While there are politically astute voters on both sides of the aisle, the largest portion of the Democratic constituency is the poor and less educated. (For those of you with reading comprehension problems, this doesn't say Democrats are stupid - the party just has a significantly larger portion of the uneducated part of the population, and for fairly obvious reasons). As such, they tend to only participate in Presidential election years.

I just think that conservatives have a larger percentage of its constituents who will participate in the polls. This is borne out by polling institutions such as Rasmussen, who poll likely voters instead of the population, and their polling tends to skew to the right - but this is reflected by actual election results and not ideology. It's no accident that runoff elections tend to also skew to the right - their liberal counterparts have done their civic duty by showing up once every four years. The conservatives would vote every day if they could.

If you galvanize conservatives, they'll beat you, because they will show up in droves.

[Larry Gude (Premo)]

Great line;

"It was like someone threw a tennis ball over the fence and we all watched the Labrador Retriever race after it, leaving the whole yard to us."

On a larger stage, that's what Obama has allowed his presidency to become; everything, EVERYTHING is health care. That's his tennis ball and the rest of the yard, most pointedly, jobs, plus wars, taxes, oil, Wall Street, all of it, he tries to bend back to health care.

[Larry Gude (Premo)]

Originally Posted by SamSpade

If you galvanize conservatives, they'll beat you, because they will show up in droves.

Good post. That's McCain in a nut shell; everyone was gathered around, energized, a goal in mind and then....he punts. TARP.

Fizzle.