U.S. News and World Distort "It's time to welcome home those Democrats who left for a time, the Reagan Democrats, the conservative Democrats, whatever labels we give them," Webb said in his victory speech. "It's time to welcome them home."
Computerworld For Miller, some of the group+óGé¼Gäós supportive stands on outsourcing and H-1B visas often left him at odds with U.S. labor groups during the campaign. His Democratic opponent in the primary, James Webb Jr., portrayed Miller as the "antichrist of outsourcing" because of his past lobbying efforts on behalf of the ITAA.
Associated Press Webb is pursuing a populist strategy aimed at returning so-called Reagan Democrats +óGé¼GÇ¥ moderate, middle-class and largely rural whites +óGé¼GÇ¥ to the Democratic Party.
American Spectator Liberal blogs in and out of Virginia joined Webb's cause, giving him the veneer of momentum. A Webb victory looked like a no-brainer to those who follow politics through their computers.
Examiner Typical for an untested candidate who+óGé¼Gäós never run for public office before, Webb+óGé¼Gäós positions are all over the map. He+óGé¼Gäós for gun rights, but is for abortion rights and opposes the state constitutional amendment forbidding gay marriages and civil unions that will also be on Virginia+óGé¼Gäós November ballot.
Personally, I like this picture better:
Jim Webb is one tough hombre.
They can't really paint him as a 'liberal' (whatever that means), as he was secretary of the Navy under Reagan.
The only have two options left, they accuse him of "cutting and running" in Iraq--as the Allen operative did on this blog last night--and also as a political oppourtunist.I.e., "flip flopper".
Watch for both attacks.
Oh, and like when Allen supported an amendment to a federal hate crimes bill that would have made sexual orientation a protected category. That is, until his far right wing base was angered, and he moved back to opposing sexual orientation as a protected category.
What makes James Webb potentially the perfect candidate for the perfect storm is not so much that he speaks to the anger and disappointment of mainstream, even right-leaning American citizens. It is the fact that he, himself, is that citizen.
So now with both of us he has now excuse for not knowing.
The front-page story on the Virginia primary, in crediting the endorsements of several out-of-state senators for James Webb's victory, missed the point.
My friends and I voted for Mr. Webb because of his abilities, convictions, leadership, courage and intelligence, and because he is an "unpolitician." We admired his unequivocal stand in 2002 against the prospect of invading Iraq. In addition, we chose Mr. Webb over Harris Miller because Mr. Miller had chosen a career as a lobbyist and because he was so close to so many politicians. We don't believe that being a lifelong Democrat who had "paid his dues" guarantees the privilege of representing an electorate.
KENNETH R. FREDGREN
Reston
16-year-old Kenton Ngo puts UVA prof. Larry Sabato (and the rest of us) to shame with his exemplary turnout analysis from 6/13's VA primary on his blog 750 Volts:
Normally when analyzing turnout in a VA primary observers just take the raw turnout: That is, votes divided by registered voters. The fallacy, however, is that you do not determine Democratic turnout. 2% turnout in a 40% Democratic county is not the same as 2% turnout in a 60% Democratic county. The former is bad, the latter is abysmal, but that fact would be hidden. To find where the most Democrats came out to vote, let's take the number of votes cast in this primary and divide them not by registered voters, but by the number of people who voted for Tim Kaine.
We find that not only does the huge 2-ton canary in Virginia politics, Fairfax County, have a huge population, the county's Democrats turned out twice as much as some areas of the state. Fairfax and Arlington where Jim Webb won this primary. This huge spike in turnout in Arlington and Fairfax carried the day.
The lowest turnout - perhaps the highest number of disaffected Democrats - appears to be around Richmond and in Southwest. The most committed, primary - voting Democrats in the state appear again to be in Fairfax and Arlington.