PrintSeptember 25, 2009
Referendum on Obama looms in Virginia
Kim Strassel of the Wall Street Journal lays out the evolution of Virginia's Nov. 3 election for governor into a virtual referendum on Obama (my term, not hers). It is not going well for Obama, or for the Democrats' nominee, Creigh Deeds, despite a massive inflow of resources from unions and other Democrat moneybags. He has been successfully tied to Obama, to his visible discomfort.
Blue dogs are watching closely. If Deeds loses, there will be a stampede away from ObamaCare. The stakes have become critical for the Obama administration. If Obama doesn't get some form of legislation passed by Nov. 3, and Deeds loses, he may never get it. And that makes the rest of his ambitious plan to transform the American political economy less likely to be realized. Enter a savvy Republican office seeker. Strassel writes:
His opponent, Republican and former state Attorney General Robert F. McDonnell, made a big bet early on that the very Virginia voters who last year helped Mr. Obama win the state today have grave doubts about his agenda, and are wary of making the same mistake. Mr. Deeds has played right into his hands.
There is a hilarious picture from AP of Deeds recoiling as Obama reaches out to embrace him. Any Republican manifesting similar body language would immediately be branded a racist, of course.
McDonnell was slimed with a twenty year old paper he wrote in college critical of feminism and homosexuality, and went from a polling margin lead of 15 points to 5. Much of his loss came from independent women. But he says his views have changed, and he has a month and a half to convince people disturbed by Obama that he is not a fundamentalist boogyman. (If only the media were equally interested in unearthing Obama's college papers!)
As Virginia goes...
Hat tip: James Lewis
