It seems that the Deeds campaign has fallen into Kilgorism, by that I mean ignoring the real issues of the day and trying to make up their gap with fake issues that are controversial, grab headlines, but in the end don't address the real everyday issues that people care about.
When it came out that the liberal survey group Public Policy Polling would be putting out one this week in Virginia, much of the conservative blogosphere perked up around the seemingly obvious issue that the Dems where using a friendly firm to staunch the bleeding by putting out a poll that should the race closer than it was. But thats not it, I noticed this blurb from the liberal Political Wire website:
Here's an advance look at a new Public Policy Polling survey in Virginia completed over the weekend: An astonishing 41% of the state's Republicans think President Obama was not born in the United States while just 32% think he was and 27% are still not sure.
Also from the new poll: Bob McDonnell (R) expands his lead over Creigh Deeds (D) in the gubernatorial race.
The complete results will be released tomorrow.
"Also from the new poll." Apparently Bob McDonnell expanding his lead over Creigh Deeds is an "also" issue.
What the Deeds campaign and the national Democrats are trying to quietly insert into this race is the so-called "birther" movement. This is the issue they are going to be running on this year, they are going to be dogging McDonnell, Bolling, and Cuccinelli with this issue so long as they think it will drive down their numbers. Now if Deeds had suddenly surged in the poll, it wouldn't be an "also." So this is what we have be wary of, the NLS blog itself has been pounding this issue for days. And its a fake issue, but no Republican elected or anyone in leadership talks about this issue. Its a fringe group on the Michael Savage wing of the conservative movement that the liberal media is trying to prop them up by covering them over and over, attempting to paint conservatives in a corner and forcing these people on the Republican Party forcing us to answer for them as if they are part of the party. Personal beliefs aside . . . and face it, people are more than free to believe what they want about Obama. I personally believe he is a US citizen, I trust our system. But this is not an issue Republicans talk about that aren't on the fringe. It just goes to show the hypocrisy of the media, who continued to act as a barrier between liberals and their more maniacal anti-war faction from 06-08, and now suddenly they are trying to define the party by its fringe.
But the real reason liberal interest groups and polling companies are bringing this up is because they are losing, losing big, and they can't understand why given the magnitude of their victory just eight months ago. But the ground is shifting below their feet because what they promised was very different to what they are delivering. They promised balanced budgets, reduction in debt, personal honesty, and that Barack Obama was the Messiah of Chicago. Instead, we are getting record debt, record spending, government attempting to control our personal health, stimulus that stimulated nothing, congressmen using earmarks for lobbyists, cabinet secretaries that don't pay their taxes, and a president that spends as much apologizing for America abroad as he does talking down America at home. This is what Republicans where doing in the Post-Katrina political nosedive we took. Its what Jerry Kilgore did. Tim Kaine ran a hard fought, grind-it-out kind of campaign that wasn't sexy but worked hard in talking about transportation and education over and over, and bringing out solutions to talk about. Now he HAS been a disaster, but his campaign was very well run. Kilgore grabbed a lead in the summer and hung on too it all fall until Kaine's hard campaign overtook him, and Kilgore couldn't make up the credibility gap because he hadn't been talking about the things Kaine was, so he reached for the death penalty and it didn't work. It grabbed headlines, it fired up the base, but ultimately it was not an issue that moved the majority of voters. We are seeing the same thing here with this "birther" red herring Democrats are throwing around. All the ticket has to do to answer that is say a) its ridiculous and b) how does bringing any of this up speak to people's concerns about health care, transportation, the deficit, and Virginia's chronic budget woes.
But then there are real issues for Creigh Deeds. Another Dem-inspired hubub has popped up over GOP Chairman Pat Mullins (who's doing a badass job, btw). What Mullins was saying is that Democrat domination over Southwest Virginia has led to an area hooked on federal handouts. I can't speak to that because I've had very limited exposure to that part of the state, but what it does show is much of Southwest Virginia and the mountain valley region have been depressed for some time. Unemployment is higher, and going up. Deeds even talked about how tough things were in his recent video ad. But Creigh Deeds has been representing rural Virginia since 1991 (I was ten, for reference). That is his legacy as a state delegate/senator. Things have not gotten better since Deeds has taken a seat in the General Assembly. In fact, he has continued to advocate raising taxes throughout his career, including the nefarious gas tax that would hurt his part of the commonwealth the most - where people have less money and unemployment is high. He has done nothing to stop the Democrats war on coal in Southwest. In short, he has long sold out his region to curry favor the national and statewide Dem leaders it takes to get where he is today. Bob McDonnell has never been a follower in his career. So while Deeds and his brain trust of idiots run arms open to the "birther" issue, they only do so because they need to head fake away from Deeds's actual record as a legislator, and how that record has failed to help his region in any tangible way. Now, can Deeds be held responsible for all the issues facing rural Virginia? Of course not. But he has a deep deep record on voting the wrong way for his region, and its partly our fault as Republicans for continuing to give away Deeds his district without fully challenging him. Deeds and his campaign have all but been advertising how bad things are in "Deeds Country" and eventually one has to wonder . . . "how long have you been representing them? Why haven't you done anything to help?' Its that realization they are trying to avoid as they try and paint Deeds as some folks 21st century Huckleberry Hound while running after issues like the "birthers" because Deeds has no answer for McDonnell, and his record doesn't either. There is very little Deeds can do to McDonnell right now, McDonnell has spent six months honing his message on Jobs, getting in touch with what really is moving the electorate and what they really want. Deeds spent six months laying in the weeds doing and saying nothing so as not to offend anyone, waiting for Moran and McAuliffe to tear each other apart. A DCPost endorsement later, suddenly Deeds won, and he had to up the next morning thinking, "wait, you mean I won?!"
So there are issues both real and imagined for Creigh Deeds, and he's trying to weave them together to define Republicans as a bunch of fringe haters who don't believe the President is a US citizen while embracing a rural "aw-shucks" persona without accepting any responsibility about the condition of the region of the state he has represented for 18 years. My advice to Republicans is do nothing, keep hammering the kitchen table issues that we have been about spending, transportation, and the failures of the Democratic reign of Tim Kaine, and the outrageous spending and encroachment of personal freedom of the national Democrat Congress and the President.
But its symbolic of the Deeds campaign right now, they are lurching for one issue to the next that have nothing to do with what's going on in Virginia - from George Bush to the birthers to whatever is next. Its a sign of how strong the McDonnell ticket is doing right now, that Deeds has ceeded to him to core issues of the campaign that people care about. McDonnel and Bolling and Cuccinelli just cannot allow themselves to be baited into this fight by Deeds & Co and the MSM because they can't win. I expect, given the quality of our ticket, that they won't. On other issues, both Jody Wagner and Steve Shannon have tried to bait Bill Bolling and Ken Cuccinelli into similar spats over issues that have nothing to do with anything. Its a sign of weakness.
Because thats what this Democrat ticket it at its heart.
Weak.
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