(Thanks to VivianPage who wrote a blip about this post, rightfully pointing out there is no party registration in Virginia)
From yesterday on Huffington Post (yes that is not a typo), an article ran from Sophie A. Nelson (Wiki) who had been committed to voting for Deeds all summer, until Deeds began the thesis attacks. To be fair, Nelson is a former Republican, with campaign experience working on President George W. Bush campaigns in 2000 and 2004, but acknowledges in the article her frustration with the GOP and admits voting for Obama last year.
Excerpts:
As a Northern Virginia resident I decided that I would most likely vote for Deeds as are many of my female neighbors because he is pro-choice. However, the commercial that Creigh Deeds is running about McDonnell’s 20 year old thesis has really turned me off. It turns me off because it is a sad commentary on Deed’s inability to articulate his own vision for Virginia, and his ideals for how he will move the Commonwealth forward in a productive way that puts people back to work, and lessens the burdens of Government.
Whether or not Bob McDonnell is a conservative, pro-life, pro-family guy has never been in dispute to my knowledge. I for one, was not surprised by his thesis. However, we have to ask ourselves as Virginia voters if we want to vote for someone (Deeds) who feels he has to tear the other guy down based on something that person wrote over 20 years ago.
..
Deeds is a hypocrite, in short. He is allowed to grow and change his mind on issues, but Mr. McDonnell is not?? I think Bob McDonnell’s daughter (an Iraq war vet and officer) is a great testament to McDonnell and his wife’s view on how to raise a young woman in the 21st Century. I am sick of the commercials with the darkness and scary music–blasting the opposition for some secret in his past or some other so-called sinister motives. I am simply over it.Bottom line: I will be voting for Bob McDonnell for governor of Virginia.
While the MSM continues to harp on the thesis, almost forcing Deeds to focus solely on the thesis and the thesis alone, voters like this are out there. And while assuredly some voters have changed their votes away from McDonnell due to the thesis, had Deeds left well enough alone and let the story control itself. Instead, by focusing and making the thesis the centerpiece of his campaign, Deeds has painted himself into a position of attacking McDonnell for the thesis while McDonnell rarely lowers himself to respond; this leaves Deeds with no choice but to try and lower McDonnell while offering no alternative. And make no mistake, lower turnout in this election will not help Deeds.
In fact, good point raised by NRO Campaign Spot:
As long as the voter turnout on Election Day is
37 percent Democrat, 29 percent Republican, and 34 percent independent, as in PublicPolicyPolling’s latest, he’ll only lose by 5 percentage points.PPP shows McDonnell leading among independents by a mere 16 percentage point margin.
For comparison, on Election Day 2008, the presidential year with enthusiasm for Obama driving Democratic turnout, the party ID split was 39 percent Democrat, 33 percent Republican, and 27 percent independent in CNN’s exit poll.
