Theories on Kaine’s Drop in Approval

By Chase

The shine may be off the apple for Governor Tim Kaine, who ran for governor as a moderate, when we all knew he was a liberal.

Now that he is well into his term, he has managed to infuriate both sides, which naturally leads to dropping approval ratings. He has plummetted from the high 70s to below 50 in this most recent poll.

Why would that be?

Thanks to Brian for the hat tip, but all I did was notice that Kaine’s approval number was 46%. I don’t know why that didn’t jump out at me at first. But, there it is.

There may be a few other things involved other than tax increases (although that’s a big one).

Involved in the tax increase issue is a failure to provide any leadership on transportation. Kaine’s knee-jerk reaction is to simply raise taxes. Who didn’t see that coming? I guess a few voter referenda in NOVA and Hampton Roads over the years taught Kaine nothing about the people’s willingness to impose taxes on themselves.

(As an example on how to lead as governor, see Allen, George — or for that matter, on the car tax, see Gilmore, Jim).

Also, plenty of Northern Virginia Democrats are more than irate that Kaine would endorse Gerry Connolly over Leslie Byrne (for that conniption fit, please visit Raising Kaine or Not Larry Sabato. Or don’t.) The split in the Connolly/Bryne camps is almost an exact parallel to Obama/Clinton. I love it.

Of course, the leftists are apoplectic about the coal-fired power plant in Wise County, and Kaine’s milquetoast approach to it. You see, lefties are against drilling, against coal, against Big Oil … but yet somehow rising gas prices are all George Bush’s fault. After all, he poisoned all the tomatoes, didn’t he? Doesn’t Tim Kaine understand that he is supposed to be against increasing energy production? The wild-eyed leftists can’t believe that Kaine took a pass on the Kool-Aid on that one.

At let us not forget the recent death penalty case, wherein Kaine commuted the death sentence of triple-murderer Percy Walton on the grounds that Walton was mentally incompetent. The same Walton who hid one of his victims in a closet and doused him with cologne so as to mask the smell of the rotting body. There was general outrage (unless you were an editorial writer for most newspapers) over this disregard for a series of court rulings that Walton was mentally competent. Making it worse was the reaction of the victims’ families.

Pro-death penalty folks were steamed at this (didn’t Jerry Kilgore tell them that this would happen?), just as the anti-death penalty folks were wondering who this Kaine guy really is — after all, hadn’t he let other death cases go through? Who is a liberal to trust? Kaine has become a wild card on the death penalty.

When Kaine ran in 2005, he posed as a moderate, so decisions he has made that demonstrate that he is a liberal (taxes and death penalty), lose him points among independents and moderates. Likewise, those liberals who supported him despite his moderate posture are shocked and dismayed when he does not toe the line (coal plants and Gerry Connolly).

No doubt liberals were convinced that he was running as a moderate just to get elected, and that he would return fully to his liberal roots once in office. The answer to that wish is: he has, and he hasn’t.

Make no mistake, Kaine has governed mostly from the left, but let this be a lesson to all:

We always knew that Tim Kaine tries to please everyone when he is a candidate or when in office. In the end, he pleases no one.

What will be his legacy, exactly? Playing harmonica? Or warming the seat for Bob McDonnell?