In Va., Jesus-Freak BOB "Macaca Junior" McDONNELL Seen Losing Ground To Deeds In Gov's Race!
Kyle Schwitters
"More in N.Va., Women Describe McDonnell As Too Conservative"
By Anita Kumar and Jon Cohen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, September 20, 2009
DRAMATIC SHIFTS among independent female voters and Northern
Virginians over the past month have propelled Democrat R. Creigh Deeds
to within four points of Republican Robert F. McDonnell in the race
for Virginia governor, according to a new Washington Post poll.
The change among likely voters -- down from a 15-point margin in mid-
August -- coincides with the publication and ensuing controversy
surrounding McDonnell's graduate school thesis, in which he writes of
his opposition to working women, feminists and gay people.
In the new poll, McDonnell edges Deeds by 51 to 47 percent among
voters who say they are certain to vote in November, with the poll
offering both candidates reasons to be optimistic as people begin to
make up their minds six weeks before Election Day.
McDonnell, a former state attorney general and legislator, continues
to top 50 percent among likely voters and boasts far more enthusiastic
supporters than Deeds. The Republican also still holds advantages on
handling an array of major issues, including the economy, the state
budget, taxes, transportation and guns.
A sizable majority of voters also say they want the state, which has
been run by Democrats for the past eight years, to move in a new
direction.
Nevertheless, Deeds has gained on many fronts and has a double-digit
advantage when it comes to dealing with issues of special concern to
women.
Deeds has made McDonnell's 20-year-old thesis and his views on women
centerpieces of his campaign, particularly in the more liberal, vote-
rich northern part of the state. The Democrat raised the document
several times in a debate in Tysons Corner on Thursday, and it is the
focus of sharply critical TV commercials and mailers in the area.
McDonnell says his views have changed on many issues in the thesis,
including his opinions on working women, and he has criticized Deeds
for focusing on what he calls a "decades-old academic paper."
"He's all those things they discovered in the thesis," said Ray Ellen,
62, a retired state employee from Fairfax County who responded to the
poll. "McDonnell likes to change the subject frequently. . . . This
guy has everybody fooled."
From the outset of the campaign through last month, Deeds had tried to
cast his opponent as outside the mainstream by alerting voters to his
conservative social views, including efforts to restrict access to
abortions and birth control.
Following news coverage of the thesis, the poll offers fresh evidence
the tactic might be working: The percentage of likely voters who see
McDonnell as "too conservative" has jumped 10 points since the August
poll and corresponds with a double-digit increase in the number seeing
Deeds as "just about right" ideologically. The percentage of
independent female voters seeing McDonnell as too conservative is now
significantly higher than it had been.
In August, independent women favored McDonnell 59 to 31 percent; now
they split 50 percent for Deeds to 47 percent for McDonnell.
The poll comes as Virginians are starting to engage in a race that has
garnered national attention as an early electoral test for President
Obama in a crucial swing state.
More than eight in 10 voters are following the contest closely, up
sharply from mid-August. About three in 10 voters say they are
undecided or could change their minds.
Deeds initially struggled to build momentum after months of campaign
problems and lackluster enthusiasm among voters and even some members
of his party. In August, Republicans outnumbered Democrats among
probable November voters; now, the electorate appears to be more
evenly divided.
In Northern Virginia, where statewide Democrats have been successful
but Deeds was slow to win support, he now leads McDonnell, 57 to 40
percent, among likely voters. In the innermost Washington suburbs,
Deeds leads 63 to 34 percent. A month ago, the two men were running
about even in Northern Virginia.
Nearly half of likely voters, 46 percent, say they have heard a "great
deal" or a "good amount" about the thesis, and among those who say it
will affect their vote, the influence is broadly negative. Most,
though, see the thesis as not having an impact, and very few -- less
than 1 percent -- call the thesis the most important issue in the
campaign.
Laura Morefield, 39, a Chesterfield mother of three young children and
a part-time teacher at Virginia Commonwealth University, said she
continued to support McDonnell after learning about the thesis. "It
doesn't really matter. When you look at him today, his wife works, his
daughter works," she said.
In contrast to his gains in Northern Virginia, Deeds has made little
evident progress in the rural western and southwestern part of the
state, a region the Democrat calls home, or "Deeds country," and where
he has spent significant time. McDonnell tops 60 percent in this area,
for his best showing in the state.
Overall, McDonnell, who has lived in the state's three most-populous
areas and resides outside Richmond, leads 55 to 44 percent outside
Northern Virginia.
Nearly four in 10 voters who back McDonnell are "very enthusiastic"
about him, compared with just more than two in 10 of Deeds's about
their choice. More Virginians deem McDonnell a more effective leader,
50 percent to 45 percent, and more say he closely shares their values,
50 percent to 43 percent.
McDonnell, who has said he would be a "jobs governor," has spent
months campaigning as a moderate who can work across party lines to
solve problems. He praises Democrats, including Obama and Gov. Timothy
M. Kaine, and has tried to de-emphasize his conservative views on
social issues, many of which helped him make a name for himself as a
legislator.
Instead, McDonnell has tried to force Deeds to talk about federal
issues, including legislation on unions, climate change and health
care, as he works to tie Deeds to Obama, the Democratic Congress and
concerns about Washington.
Deeds has tried to distance himself from issues in Washington while
pledging to follow in the footsteps of the last two Democratic
governors, U.S. Sen. Mark Warner and Kaine.
Kaine, who serves as his party's national chairman, remains popular in
the state -- 59 percent of likely voters approve of the job he is
doing -- but nearly two-thirds say they want the next governor to get
the state going in a new direction.
The economy is issue No. 1, with 27 percent calling it the most
important in the campaign. Education is the second most-frequently
mentioned issue in the governor's race, followed by health care, taxes
and transportation.
McDonnell's focus on transportation has not won him supporters on the
issue in congested Northern Virginia. Transportation ranks as the
second-most important issue in the region, and Deeds has a 49 to 36
percent advantage as the one voters trust to deal with it. A month
ago, McDonnell and Deeds were roughly equal among likely voters in
Northern Virginia on transportation.
Deeds also benefits from improved ratings for Obama and the Democratic
initiative to overhaul health care. Overall, 53 percent of Virginia's
likely voters approve of the job the president is doing, up from 47
percent in August. A month ago, most saw government action on health
care as doing more harm than good; now, a slim majority sees it as
essential to controlling costs and expanding coverage.
The poll, conducted by telephone Monday through Thursday, included
interviews with 2,113 adult Virginians, 1,003 of whom said they were
"absolutely certain" to vote in the gubernatorial election. The
results for the sample of likely voters have a margin of sampling
error of plus or minus three percentage points. Error margins for
subgroups are larger.
This analysis highlights opinions among Virginia voters who say they
are sure to vote in November; a month ago, the main report focused on
all registered voters in the state. As elections near, polling results
narrow in on those most likely to vote.
[Polling analyst Jennifer Agiesta contributed to this report.]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/19/AR2009091902552.html?hpid=topnews
=============
McDONNELL's Jesus-Freaky "University" ... heh-heh ...
-------
"Issues of Perception Try McDonnell's Alma Mater"
By Ian Shapira
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, September 20, 2009
VIRGINIA BEACH -- Robert Rice, a law student at Regent University, is
proud to see alumnus Robert F. McDonnell, Virginia's Republican
gubernatorial candidate, representing the Christian school founded by
televangelist Pat Robertson.
But the campaign controversy sparked by McDonnell's 1989 master's
thesis decrying feminism, homosexuality and the use of contraception
by unmarried couples has left Rice and some other Regent students
worried about the disconnect between their school's Christian values
and how they and their school are viewed by the rest of the United
States and members of their own generation.
"Do we think it's 'illogical' for unmarried cohabitating couples to
use contraceptives?" said Rice, 32, editor of the Regent Journal of
Law and Public Policy, whose inaugural issue features an article on
same-sex marriage with McDonnell's byline. "I don't think so."
Rice, who said he wants to be an estate planner or prosecutor near his
family in rural Ohio, is frustrated that "people have this perception
about us. You can go to a liberal school, but that doesn't mean you're
indoctrinated. All of our professors are believing Christians, but
it's not like we sit around class or during breaks and say, 'Did you
read Second Timothy?' We get into heated debates, and nobody gets
thrown out because so-and-so is pro-choice or pro-life."
At Regent, a 70-acre campus of red-brick, white-columned buildings
arranged around a huge wooden cross and a perpetual flame, some
students and faculty members have reacted to the flap about
McDonnell's thesis with a dismissive shrug. But to others at the 31-
year-old school, the controversy adds to their worry that the wider
world looks askance at Regent's mission -- to churn out Christian
leaders and change agents -- because of Robertson's inflammatory
rhetoric and the school's founding as part of his Christian
Broadcasting Network.
"We were pigeonholed as an extension of CBN," said Carlos Campo,
Regent's vice president for academic affairs. "We have not drifted
from that vision, but we have been able to manifest it in ways that
make people understand it better. We are less conservative. Pat, he's
a much more open and intellectually curious person than a lot of folks
give him credit for."
Campo said he is often amused at the notion that Regent -- whose Web
site used to boast that 150 of its graduates worked in the second Bush
administration -- is training fundamentalist Christians to penetrate
Washington. "I think it's clear that the cultural gatekeepers of
American have been more liberal than the average American," he said.
"We just serve as a counterweight." (The Post reported last year that
a majority of President Obama's top appointments went to graduates of
Ivy League or elite British universities, MIT, Stanford and the
University of Chicago.)
During the campaign, McDonnell, who says his "views on many issues
have changed as I have gotten older," has responded to questions about
Regent's effect on his political views by saying that it is just one
of many schools he has attended. In a 2007 interview with Robertson on
the minister's "700 Club" TV show, McDonnell called Regent "a great
place to learn the foundational principles of our country in a
Christian atmosphere. It gave me a great understanding of the limited
role of government and the important roles of the church and the
family . . . and what happens if government tries to take on those
roles and can often make a mess."
Students and faculty agree that Regent, which has about 1,700
undergraduates and 3,200 graduate students, is mostly conservative or
Republican -- the school's Democrats and Independents club has 10
members -- but they contend that many students are more socially
moderate than outsiders would imagine.
Kelly Duff, 26, a third-year law and master's student in government,
resembles many of her campus peers: A registered independent at home
in New York, she opposes same-sex marriage but supports civil unions,
scoffs at McDonnell's thesis statement that feminism is "detrimental"
to the family and disagrees with McDonnell's opposition to abortion,
supporting the procedure in cases of rape or incest. Still, she said
she would vote for McDonnell, if she could.
She is a nose-pierced, white, born-again Christian who got a degree
from the University of Albany in political science and Africana
studies -- how African Americans view U.S. history -- and was
considering New York University for law school when her pastor's son
swayed her toward Regent. "I do believe in Jesus, but everything else
I question," she said. "Because of my faith, I believe there is a
sovereign being, and I wanted to learn the rule of law from that
basis."
At first, she was apprehensive about enrolling at an overtly faith-
based school. "I was nervous about the Christian bubble and was like,
'What am I doing?' " she recalled. " 'They're going to be so
intolerant.' But it's definitely more mixed. Everyone seems perfectly
reasonable. Half the people have no idea who Pat Robertson is."
Student theses archived at Regent's library reveal a generational
difference between the school's early years in the 1980s, when it was
known as Christian Broadcasting Network University, and its recent
history. Early theses have titles such as "The Role of the Press in
Disseminating Communist Propaganda as a Foreign Policy Strategy of
Totalitarian Governments," and "Homosexuals' American Dream . . . or
Nightmare," a study that advocated "Criminalizing Homosexuality -- The
First Line of Defense." Thesis titles from the 21st century: "U2's
Gospel of Modulation in a Decade of Change" and "Federal Funding for
Needle Exchange Programs," which advocated the idea as a way to
prevent HIV.
Experts who study Christian higher education say Regent is bringing in
scholars from elite, secular universities to speak on panels and
strengthen its academic objectivity. "I was surprised that even I had
been invited to speak there because I've been quoted negatively about
Pat Robertson," said Michael Cromartie, vice president of the Ethics
and Public Policy Center in Washington.
Ashlie Gibbs, 23, an African American graduate student and president
of Regent's Democrats and Independents club, said that despite the
campus's religious homogeneity, political tensions do surface. "I've
had small discussions with Republicans about McDonnell's thesis and
they say, 'It was a long time ago, and he's changed some of his
positions,' " she said. "I'm a tiny bit skeptical."
Conservatives at Regent say that, rather than operating in an
ideologically narrow echo chamber, they constantly grapple with
perspectives that veer far from fundamentalist Christian views. "My
wife's college roommate is one of our best friends," said Chuck Slemp,
a Regent law student who once worked as McDonnell's scheduler. "She's
the quintessential liberal -- pro-choice, pro-gay marriage -- but we
get together and talk. She's opened my eyes. I know some, like [HBO
television host] Bill Maher, may have opinions about Regent students
being brainwashed, radical conservatives. That's false. It's
frustrating."
Asked about McDonnell's contention in his thesis that feminism is
detrimental to family, Slemp laughed. "My wife works," he said. "She
puts me through school."
Classmate Rice needled his friend: "I like to call her the 'Sugar
Mama.' "
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/18/AR2009091802606.html?hpid=topnews
Suppurating Tool
His Bipartisan Program Would Not Take Money From Education, As Bob
"Macaca Junior" McDonnell
Wants To Do!
STEADILY, incrementally, DEEDS, Virginia's Democratic candidate for
governor, is proposing sound, rational, acceptable approaches and
solutions to the state's myriad challenges.
On the other hand, Robert McDonnell, the Republican candidate, whose
documented dream is to return "Ol' Virginny" to its racist, intolerant
past -- "Little Macaca" is busy wasting voters' time denying or
defending his recently-disavowed OPPOSITION to women in terms of work,
pro-choice, and equal pay -- as well as his career-long support for
religious instruction in public schools.
And where McDonnell, a protege of George "Macaca" Allen, is
assiduously striving to hide from voters his hidden ultra-conservative
political views, Deeds is hard at work on the campaign circuit,
actively propounding forward-looking plans and solutions to Virginia's
most important challenges.
If the better man wins in November, it'll be Creigh Deeds.
----------------------
"My Transportation Plan"
By Creigh Deeds
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
The first job of the next governor of Virginia is to restore
confidence in our economy, and the best way to do that is through
fixing our state transportation system.
Our transportation infrastructure is crumbling around us. More than
4,000 bridges are structurally deficient, we can't keep up with basic
maintenance of roads, and there is almost no state money for new road
construction or rail and transit improvements.
In the plan laid out on my Web site, I share my views that we need to:
-- Bring high-speed rail to Virginia.
-- Reduce congestion (and commute times) in Northern Virginia.
-- Expand freight and passenger rail.
-- Maximize economic opportunities linked to the Port of Virginia.
-- Utilize bus rapid transit.
-- Expand the capacity of critical Hampton Roads water crossings and
emergency evacuation routes.
-- Reduce rush-hour traffic through telecommuting and flex-time tax
credits.
-- Promote smarter land-use planning.
-- And expand road and rail projects in Southwest and Southside
Virginia.
We all largely agree about what's needed to fix our infrastructure.
Where my opponent and I disagree is how to accomplish those
improvements. I believe we should use the only approach that has
succeeded in the past two decades.
The last time Virginia passed meaningful transportation funding was in
1986, under Gov. Gerald Baliles (D), who created a commission to
provide recommendations and build support for financing. Since then,
each time a governor has presented a proposal to the General Assembly
to raise meaningful transportation revenue, it has failed.
The day after I'm elected, I will begin assembling a bipartisan
commission to craft a comprehensive transportation package. Like Gov.
Baliles did, I will appoint Republicans, Democrats and independents
along with private-sector leaders and transportation experts. The
commission would begin work in December and issue its report early
next year.
There must be a nexus between funding and those who use our
transportation system -- Virginians and those from other states.
Virginia needs a bipartisan plan that must have enough funding to deal
with our multibillion-dollar backlog and make the needed investments
for our future. All funding options are on the table except taking
money from education and other obligations met by Virginia's general
fund.
I will not let lawmakers go home until we pass a comprehensive
transportation plan -- our economic future depends on this.
Let me be clear regarding taxes. I will sign a bill that is the
product of bipartisan compromise that provides a comprehensive
transportation solution. As a legislator, I have voted for a number of
mechanisms to fund transportation, including a gas tax. And I'll sign
a bipartisan bill with a dedicated funding mechanism for
transportation -- even if it includes new taxes.
To build a bipartisan consensus to find that new revenue, and to
ensure the best chance of passage, all options for funding will be on
the table. We will need every legislator committed to finding a
solution. In my 18 years in the legislature, I've learned that the
best way to reach compromise is to be open to all ideas and get
everyone involved.
Bob McDonnell has pledged not to sign a transportation bill with new
revenue. His approach is to pay for transportation with money from the
general fund. As The Post's Frederick Kunkle has reported, "general
funds are raised from a variety of sources, such as individual and
corporate income taxes. These funds can be spent . . . at the
discretion of the General Assembly and the governor. The majority of
the money in the general fund goes to education (45.9 percent), with
the rest to health and human resources (24.2 percent) and public
safety (11.1 percent)."
I do not support taking funds from these critical priorities to pay
for roads. More important, neither will the General Assembly.
Republicans and Democrats are on record opposing McDonnell's funding
proposals.
McDonnell's idea of using general funds for transportation is not new.
In 2007, an editorial in the Daily Press of Hampton Roads said that
McDonnell urged "the General Assembly to exploit the gap in state road
funding as a rationale for reducing state spending on education,
public safety, health care and conservation. That such an ideological
purpose lies behind the Republican transportation proposal has been
implied all along. McDonnell made it explicit."
We can't solve this problem without new revenue. My opponent is
playing political shell games, being dishonest about his revenue
projections. And his idea to take funds from education, health care
and public safety to pay for transportation is dead on arrival.
My approach is honest, straightforward -- and the only one that can
succeed. Working together, we'll get Virginia moving again.
[The writer, a state senator in Virginia, is the Democratic nominee
for governor.]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/22/AR2009092202643.html
God'sLittleAnus
Letter to the Editor
The Washington Post
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Me for governor! I know I have at least one vote. David Skiles wrote,
"It seems to this reader that a candidate who at least comes up with
ideas is better than one who has only one solution to any problem
facing our state: tax and spend" ["Robert F. McDonnell's Thoughtful
Roads Plan," letters, Sept. 29].
Here are my ideas: Virginia dentists throw away millions of teeth
every year. If they would put them under a giant pillow, the Tooth
Fairy would give us plenty of transportation money.
As a backup, we could get Santa Claus to tell us his transportation
secrets. A guy who can go around the world in one night, stopping at
every house with good girls and boys, can surely get us to work in the
morning.
These are just as likely to succeed as most of Robert F. McDonnell's
"ideas."
LARRY MANNING
Arlington, Va.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/30/AR2009093004631.html
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinions/tomtoles/?nid=roll_toonsvid