I made the front page of Daily Kos. (That’s my uncredited “lengthy and illuminative comment.”)
So begins the national discussion of Virginia Democrats and the ’05 race.
Comments are closed.
Open source, procurement, and gov tech.
I made the front page of Daily Kos. (That’s my uncredited “lengthy and illuminative comment.”)
So begins the national discussion of Virginia Democrats and the ’05 race.
Comments are closed.
Why was your comment unattributed, do you suppose?
It’s not uncommon for blogged mentions of comments on other blogs to go without attribution, beyond the blog of origin. Though I’d prefer a credit, I’m not unhappy about the lack of a credit, since anybody following the provided link can see that I wrote it.
Good job. I saw that and I thought, “Hey, I kinda know that guy!”
Wow, that was both lengthy and illuminative. And well-written and well-reasoned.
Obviously, I disagree with most of it. :)
If I get time, I’ll have a response (though, with the kids pulling at me today, I don’t know if I’ll get a chance until later).
One interesting point: I note that you mentioned Wise County in one of your comments over there. I was actually raised in Wise County, and much of my family still lives there. Does that mean I should run for statewide office?
JB
One interesting point: I note that you mentioned Wise County in one of your comments over there. I was actually raised in Wise County, and much of my family still lives there. Does that mean I should run for statewide office?
I’d say it helps. :)
There are some candidates that are beyond geographic help. Phil Puckett is a total non-starter — I don’t care where he’s from. Swell guy, but a terrible speaker, and that’s that. OTOH, Mark Warner succeeded despite that he’s from what I’ve heard described as “the great state of Northern Virginia” (I’d disagree with the “great” bit), but that’s because he managed to portray himself as sharing the values of those from Southside and Southwest Virginia.
Geography is important. It’s hard to poll on, and it’s difficult to die to things like values and turnout in a really meaningful way, but I think that there’s a lot to be said for having roots in Wise County. If you’ve stayed there the whole time, though, that might be a problem for statewide office. :)
You are absolutely correct about Phillip Pucket (whom I’ve met, and like, incidentally). The top elected Democrat in my jurisdiction made a telling comment about Puckett a few days ago, as we were discussing the upcoming races. He knows Puckett (and served with him in the General Assembly), and he said that Puckett didn’t really have an idea what he was getting into. You have to eat, breathe, and sleep Virginia politics to run a statewide campaign, and Puckett just didn’t have it in him.
As for Mark Warner, I hate to keep agreeing with you, but he did an incredible job of connecting with Southwest Virginians in the last election. Masterful.
I haven’t seen that same ability in Tim Kaine, but we may yet. He has a tie to SWVA, in his father-in-law, Linwood Holton (from Wise County!), but no one really remembers or cares about Holton any longer down there. I don’t know how much that tie will help him.
Even if Kaine had Warner’s ability to connect downstate, I don’t know if it would matter. Kilgore is going to run the table down there.
Maybe I will, too…someday. :)
Just to weigh in on the connection between Linwood Holton and Kaine – I do not even know who Holton is. I have heard the name, but thats it. I am from Dickenson County, but have spent about 50% of my time in Wise County.
I know who Holton is, only from hearing Kaine mention him in his stump speech on several occasions. :) I think that Virginians of a Certain Age are familiar with him, but for us young’uns, he’s just a name.