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Blogs Eric Reads
The Real World of Virginia
On MSNBC today yesterday, senior McCain advisor Nancy Pfotenhauer managed to piss off one million Northern Virginia voters in one fell swoop:
NANCY PFOTENHAUER: I certainly agree that Northern Virginia has gone more Democratic. As a proud resident of Oakton, VA, I can tell you that the Democrats have just come in from the District of Columbia and moved into northern Virginia [...] But the rest of this state — real Virginia if you will — will be very responsive to Sen. McCain’s message.
[...]
CORK: I’m gonna give you a chance to climb back off that ledge; did you say ‘real Virginia’?PFOTENHAUER: [laughs] I did say outside of Northern– well, I mean real Virginia because Northern Virginia is where I’ve always been, but real Virginia, I take to be this part of the state that is more southern in nature. Northern Virginia is really metro DC, as you’re aware, Kevin.
CORK: Alright, I’m just gonna let ya– you’ll wear that one. I’m just, I’m just saying.
Is that right, Nancy? I’m just a carpetbagger from DC? Well, in case you’ve forgotten, here’s the last politician to mouth off about “Real Virginia:”
And here’s how Virginians responded:
Ed.: Due to a technical error, this post was not published until Sunday.
If the Sheet Fits
Now that the McCain campaign has descended entirely into panic mode, the Republican base is starting to show their true colors.
First, a local party treasurer in my home state:
A local newspaper columnist, in a spoof of Obama’s platform, wrote in one recent piece that the Democrat would hire the rapper Ludacris to paint the White House black (a reference to a pro-Obama song by Ludacris), and divert more foreign aid to Africa so “the Obama family there can skim enough to allow them to free their goats and live the American Dream.” He joked that Obama would replace the 50 stars on the U.S. flag “with a star and crescent logo,” an Islamic symbol, and that his policy on drugs would be to “raise taxes to pay for Obama’s inner-city political base.”
The columnist, Bobby May, is also treasurer of the Buchanan County Republican Party and was listed in a July news release as the county’s representative on McCain’s Virginia leadership team, though he said his column reflected his views alone, and he denied it was racist.
Then we have the Florida teacher who used a racial slur to describe Obama:
Larry Moore, deputy superintendent for the Jackson County School District, said school officials determined [teacher Greg] Howard wrote an acronym with an explanation on a dry-erase board in his class Sept. 26 at Marianna Middle School.
It said, “C.H.A.N.G.E. — Come Help A (N-word) Get Elected.”
Howard, who’s been teaching in the district for 17 years, wrote the comment during his seventh-grade social-studies class that included 17 white students, six black students and one Asian.
There’s also the increasing sense among right-wing pundits like Ann Coulter that minorities are responsible for the economic crisis:
Under Clinton, the entire federal government put massive pressure on banks to grant more mortgages to the poor and minorities. Clinton’s secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Andrew Cuomo, investigated Fannie Mae for racial discrimination and proposed that 50 percent of Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s portfolio be made up of loans to low- to moderate-income borrowers by the year 2001.
Instead of looking at “outdated criteria,” such as the mortgage applicant’s credit history and ability to make a down payment, banks were encouraged to consider nontraditional measures of credit-worthiness, such as having a good jump shot or having a missing child named “Caylee.”
And finally, of course, there’s Sarah Palin and her Barracuda Buddies:
McCain had said that racially explosive attacks related to Obama’s former pastor, the Rev.Jeremiah Wright, are off limits. But Palin told New York Times columnist Bill Kristol in an interview published Monday: “I don’t know why that association isn’t discussed more.”
Worse, Palin’s routine attacks on the media have begun to spill into ugliness. In Clearwater, arriving reporters were greeted with shouts and taunts by the crowd of about 3,000. Palin then went on to blame Katie Couric’s questions for her “less-than-successful interview with kinda mainstream media.” At that, Palin supporters turned on reporters in the press area, waving thunder sticks and shouting abuse. Others hurled obscenities at a camera crew. One Palin supporter shouted a racial epithet at an African American sound man for a network and told him, “Sit down, boy.”
[Update: Greg Sargent says the unmentioned racial epithet was "uppity Negro."]
Republicans have seen the polls and they know that they’re in serious trouble, which means it’s time for the gloves to come off and pointy hoods to go on.
There are twenty-seven days left until the election. Now is the time to work like crazy to get out the vote for Obama or these racists will have another four years in power.
I Voted!
Turning Virginia blue, one vote at a time.
The biggest downside to voting absentee is that you don’t get that cool “I Voted” sticker. Oh well.
Bolling Campaign Nixes Twin City Guidebooks Over Gay Tourism Section
Virginia Lt. Governor Bill Bolling’s re-election campaign is really scared of Teh Gay. So scared, in fact, that they shipped the Minneapolis-St. Paul guidebooks they had ordered for the Virginia RNC delegation back to the publisher because the books included a few pages for gay and lesbian visitors.
Bolling (R) had planned to give the guidebooks, published by the Rake, to the 123 members of the Virginia delegation to the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn.
A Bolling spokesman said Monday that the lieutenant governor never saw a copy of the guidebook but would not have had a problem with it.
A staffer reviewed a copy and canceled the order because of the section for gays and lesbians, said Randy Marcus, Bolling’s chief of staff and a convention delegate. Bolling’s campaign ordered another guidebook for the delegates and alternates instead.
“We are sorry that this has occurred and wish it had not happened,” Marcus said. “We wish it had not happened.”
So…. are they apologizing for ordering LGBT-friendly guidebooks? Or for shipping back something that Bolling “would not have had a problem with?” Or for inconveniencing the publisher with the return? Huh?
In any event, someone ought to tell Bill Bolling that you can’t turn people gay with a tolerant guidebook.
Drake to Hold Fundraiser with Karl Rove
Congresswoman Thelma Drake (R-VA) is holding a fundraiser that I doubt her fellow Republicans will be emulating:
Yes, she’s really trying to sell a photo with Karl Rove, who is apparently back in the US after fleeing the country to avoid a Congressional subpoena. This can only be good news for Glenn Nye.
The Fairfax County Democratic Team
After yesterday’s relatively unattended Congressional primaries, we now have our 2008 Fairfax County Democratic ticket:
Barack Obama - President
Mark Warner - U.S. Senate
Cong. Jim Moran - U.S. Congress, 8th District
Judy Feder - U.S. Congress, 10th District
Gerry Connolly - U.S. Congress, 11th District
We’ve got winners up and down the ticket in Fairfax County. John McCain and his friends are in big trouble in November.
Virginia to Mandate Internet Safety Lessons
More states should do this:
Virginia is the first state to mandate that public schools offer Internet safety classes for all grade levels — and it’s one of many measures being taken nationally to protect young Web users.
Virginia’s requirement initially stemmed from concerns about sex offenders preying on children online and a general increase in Internet-based crime. It took effect this school year.
Many students are more internet-savvy than their parents, but that doesn’t mean that they’re smarter than their parents–I can speak from experience on both counts. Hopefully other states will follow suit.
Obamarama
It’s a good day to be Barack Obama.
Those numbers are pretty incredible. He beat Hillary Clinton 2-to-1 in Virginia and Maryland and 3-to-1 in DC, and he won the Latino vote in Virginia. As for the delegate count, CNN’s numbers put him in the lead:
According to NBC Political Director Chuck Todd, Hillary needs to win Texas, Ohio, and Pennsylvania by about 63% to catch Obama if he wins Wisconsin and Hawaii. How likely is that? Well, probably not very. Let’s compare the number of states that each of them has won with 60% of the vote or more:
Obama:
- Virginia
- Maryland
- Washington, DC
- Illinois
- Georgia
- Washington
- Nebraska
- Minnesota
- Alaska
- Idaho
- Kansas
- North Dakota
- Colorado
Clinton:
- Arkansas
When Barack Obama wins, he really wins. Of the 23 states he’s won, he’s taken over 60% of the votes in more than half of them. With the exception of Arkansas, Hillary Clinton is just eking out Obama for narrow finishes. This race isn’t going to be over until it’s over, but with Clinton’s superdelegates “wavering” and her husband’s ex-campaign staff jumping on the Obama bandwagon, she’s going to have to scramble for big wins on March 4.
