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Creigh Deeds' negative campaign is not what Virginia needs, by Linda White Date published: 10/4/2009
I TAKE IN megadoses of politics throughout the month, so I don't like to write about the subject in this column. I'd rather introduce readers to the pungent salt marshes and varied birdlife of Chincoteague or assess the brilliant yellow of the tulip poplars lining the field where I run my dog. But, alas, these days I have politics on my mind. I haven't met him yet, but I suspect Deeds is a nice guy. He's a family man, a legislator with 18 years of experience, and a friend of former state Sen. John Chichester. I was glad when Deeds won the Democratic primary in this year's governor's race, and I was interested to hear his ideas on solving the problems facing Virginia. But I've been sorely disappointed with his campaign. In fact, I'm disgusted with the nature of the TV ads he's been running, and I'm holding out hope that, in this last month, he'll see the light and get square. Because when "whatever it takes to win" becomes a politician's game plan, voters lose. Deeds' campaign for Virginia governor had been faltering this summer. He had no plan to fix transportation, nebulous positions on other issues, and he seemed to perpetually be playing catch-up. When Republican candidate Bob McDonnell said that, if elected, he'd re-open the state's rest areas within 90 days, Deeds said he'd do it in 60--kind of an "oh, yeah?" approach to leadership. Then, just before Labor Day, The Washington Post handed Deeds what he apparently thinks is a trump card: the now-famous 20-year-old master's thesis written by McDonnell when he was at Regent University. The thesis was an exercise in designing social policy for the Republican Party on a national scale, and its verbiage and ideas (and even its quaint typewriter font) reflect Reagan-era thinking and, yes, conservative religious values. The way Deeds is using this old document, you'd think McDonnell was trying to put Virginia in a burqa.
Deeds campaign has often looked unfocused and a bit desperate probably due to the near impossibility of a Dem winning this year following the national sweep of 2008.
But the Post did not dig up McDonnell's thesis until he himself brought it up proudly. Apparently he still thinks some of it is relevant. And his own ads are not exactly truthful - witness the edited take on Deeds position on taxes, and his insinuation that the Wash. Post finds his transportation plan laudable.
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