In my experience, what you're seeing now with the phony anti-semitism charge and the tearing down of signs is a campaign in distress.  People working for Miller are probably frustrated, angry, depressed -- it's no fun to be with a probable loser.  Were you ever in, say, a Little League game and it was 15-1 in the fourth inning, and you're out in right field in the hot sun?

So everyone take a deep breath.

I think that tells you thyat Miller knows he's not favored to win.  Why take such a huge chance if you were ahead or neck-and-neck?  The frustration from the Miller campaign is almost palpable; his robo-calls sound almost pleading, and his staffers seem almost irate whenever they see the bigger crowds at Webb events.

But yeah, signs of distress for sure.  They wouldn't play with fire like that if they weren't in trouble already.

Webb has crossover appeal.  Miller doesn't.
John Kerry sees it
Owen Pickett sees it
Wesley Clark sees it
Leslie Byrne sees it
Chap Petersen sees it
and the Roanoke Times also sees it

I guess my main question is, are the people sticking with Miller because he's a personal friend?  Do they really think that Allen is so invincible that it won't matter who gets nominated?  Did they endorse before Webb declared, and feel like they can't back out now?

Seriously, I have yet to hear one compelling argument for why Miller would be a more competitive nominee than Webb.  Even Miller's backers can't seem to really tell you why to like him, other than he's "one of the boys."

A Miller supporter on another blog seemed to have a problem with people with a BS in computer science or engineering being paid more than an MBA.  He felt pretty strongly about it.

It wasn't as much what he said as that I had an "aha" moment when I realized that there was so much silent hostility among noncoders towards coders, nontechies towards techies.

Maybe that developed during the dot com era, but I began to be more aware of it.  For example, Miller has mentioned in one of his many interviews that programmers used to get free cars, etc. 

Hard to say... very bitter.. sour grapes kind of thing.

As for some of his endorsers, I think a few of them go back to the FCDC days. 

That's nuts.  a MBA usually makes more than an engineer.

While some young lucky cats in the late 90's did get cars...
that was also a "dot con" era and even during that time, engineers over 40 had a hell of time getting a job and many couldn't get hired.  Institutionalized age discrimination.

Now, we have jobs wants people to work for free, 10 dollars an hr and so forth.

Finally, people who don't understand engineering maybe do not realize that it's incredible difficult and complex.  The amount of education, training and talent to architect a chip for example is years of expertise plus more education than is required for a MBA.

So, this guy isn't in reality on what's going on.

More like he flunked Calculus.  :)

Maybe it was just a personal situation he was projecting onto the entire world.

If he was in silly valley to be honest, so much wasn't based on ability or meritocracy.

But, thinking that engineers are all 22 year olds who just "code" and get "cars" is so wrong.

anyway, the unjust business world and professional careers
has "bent" people into various twisted pretzels.

Eric Schmidt has made such comments on DK. Seems that someone has been understating the work of IT professionals. I was amused at the comments basically diminishing the work of programmers and engineers and making it sound as if they were grossly overpaid. And that all real value was due to MBAs.

There is a hierarchy of skills and experience tied to income in IT jobs. And, before offshore outsourcing and H-1b worker replacement programs began to decimate American IT job ranks, it was not at all uncommon for experienced engineers to advance into management, albeit IT management.

I was struck by the arrogance and even condescension exhibited toward American IT workers in the comments I've read. It actually made me think of Miller's indifference toward American IT workers in the years he spent at the ITAA helping corporations to replace Americans with lower wage foreign workers...

I suppose that's why Americans are increasingly uninterested in IT careers... Declining salaries, shrinking job opportunities, disappearing job security, deteriorating work conditions and poor treatment by management.

It's possible this person deals in H-1B Visa holders through a contract house.  They take a huge percentage off the top of the hourly rate, get cheap labor in on H-1B.

There are also people who peddle offshore outsourcing.

I find the whole thing disgusting because they aren't actually making a product, their profit model is completely off of the "heads" of others.

Literally they refer to people as "heads".

So, this is probably why the hatred.  First one belittles the victim, then...

Thank you Roanoke times for endorsing Jim Webb!  You are a great paper.

And a great community!

Why not run the entire editorial?  Because the excerpts of the Roanoke Times on Raising Kaine left out these key paragraphs:

"Webb's opponent, lobbyist and political activist Harris Miller of Fairfax, has a long and distinguished record in serving his party."

"Either Webb or Miller would be a vast improvement over the disappointing service of Allen, whose almost sycophantic enabling of the Bush administration's most troubling policies has ill-served Virginia and the American people."

Not to take away any of your thunder, but the Times also likes Miller...

You're just glad they said activist instead of lobbyist!

Miller took an entire portion of the cartoon out so they could try (in vain) to portray it as something it was not.

This clearly is still an endorsement for Webb.  You have no point.

"Webb's opponent, lobbyist and political activist Harris Miller of Fairfax"

As long as everyone is getting offended so easily... ;-)

I am offended at Harris Miller claiming he is an activist.  Let me tell you (preaching to choir here, I realize) that most activists are in this for the love of what they do.  Miller is in this for the money.  He gets paid - obviously millions - to LOBBY for corporations. 

We don't do this for short term gain, but long term security for our community and families.  WE ACTIVISTS represent everything that Harris Miller is not.  Our activism is to FIX everything that Harris Miller has BROKEN!

As long as Miller is getting up on a soapbox about that stupid cartoon, I'm going to get on this soapbox.  That SOB is no activist.  He wouldn't have the heart to work for something tirelessly and without pay - and often with very little hope of ever achieving the goals.

I don't know any activists with enough money to spend $1,000,000 on a political campaign.  He is a lobbyist.

I'll give you the Roanoke Times for Webb (although they also said great things about Miller).  I'll take the Washington Post editorial for Miller, along with the Miller endorsements in the Virginian-Pilot and the Richmond Free Press.

That's the deal because that's what you have...

Falls Church News-Press for Webb. 

Also, I would point out that the Washington Post had some bad things to say about Miller ("deficits in dash and elan," "an inopportune year for a candidate to have the word "lobbyist" appended to one's name") and nice things to say about Webb ("an early and prescient critic of the war in Iraq and its likely consequences," "an undoubtedly compelling figure," "a scrappy former Marine and much-decorated Vietnam veteran with impressive literary credentials and an Emmy Award to his name").

big suprise Miller got the endorsement

In the Albemarle/Charlottesville area the feedback I get is that the overwhelming majority of Democrats have no idea there is a primary Tuesday.

When we do hear that folks are aware of the primary and they are Miller supporters, the reason always include Webb was a Republican at one time. Miller supporters tend to struggle to find positives for Miller from what I've seen. Miller is just not a motivator for Dems.

When the "primary aware" Dems are Webb supporters they usually have a number of positives for supporting him (ie he can win, he's better on Iraq, etc.). My guess is less than half of this group also include negative opinions on Miller. When they do have a negative opinion of Miller they almost always reference Miller's mailers.

I have no idea how many will actually vote. However, out of the "primary aware" Dems in this area that I've spoken with, it seems that more than half are Webb folks, maybe 10% are still fence sitters and Miller has the rest. Actually, it is not easy to find an "active" Miller supporter here. The best I get is that "he seems like a nice guy".

Miller may win because he's had an almost unchallenged "mailer" and TV ad discussion with Dems. Some of that has had a reverse effect due to the low balling but it is not clear how much. It is likely that many of the folks that are turned off by his message will just not vote rather than turn out for an "anti-Webb" vote.

My best guess is the Jim Webb is going to win. The Miller message may suppress the vote but I don't think that will translate to an active "anti-Webb" vote for the most part.

The Roanoke Times editorial is predictable but I don't think the "primary aware" folks actually are swayed by newpaper endorsements including the WP or the Virginia Pilot. Play the "lets make a deal" thing if you want, what I'm seeing is leaning to Webb.