Arizona Sen. John McCain, the presumptive GOP nominee for president, appears to beating Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) when it comes to announcing campaign offices across the state. - The Washington PostIt's one thing to report on announced campaign offices (one presumes that Mr. Craig did not do the research (yet?) to discover whether these offices actually exist or not), but another thing entirely to say that Sen. McCain is "beating" Sen. Obama in some false competition.
Mr. Craig should know that it isn't how many offices you have, but rather how many people you have which defines how well a campaign is doing. Offices are like signs, they're impressive but they don't vote. While Sen. McCain's campaign has been spending its money renting office space in Virginia, Sen. Obama has invested in people, bringing hundreds of volunteers and Obama Organizing Fellows to the Old Dominion. So let McCain have his offices, as long as Sen. Obama keeps putting boots on the ground in Virginia.
The creation of some silly, non-existent "office competition" between the Obama and McCain campaigns is not worthy of the Washington Post's political reporting. It leads us to ask whether the Post is looking for something positive to say about McCain in Virginia. Perhaps they are, after all, the sentence about the Democratic Party's efforts began like this:
But the Virginia Democrat Party's coordinated campaign... - Tim Craig, The Washington PostAh, the old "Democrat Party" put-down. There's nothing better than seeing a Republican phrase echoed as proper terminology by the Washington Post. Even when talking about Democratic accomplishments, there's a subtle insult.
And yes, it is possible that it could have been "just a mistake." But after over two years of commentary on the "Democrat Party" jibe, one would think the Washington Post would have editorial standards of usage addressing just such things.
One would think.
(Crossposted from Leesburg Tomorrow.)