VA-Gov: Kaine: Ditching base cost Deeds the race

[WI_DEM]

Maybe the party has learned the biggest lesson of the 2009 elections:

Kaine said the key to victory for Democrats in a highly competitive Virginia is recognizing that party members need not be "apologetic" about their affiliation to find success. He noted that about 200,000 more people voted in the Democratic primary for president on a frigid February day in 2008 than cast ballots for Deeds this year, and said McDonnell successfully spooked Deeds by suggesting that Virginians had grown anxious about the Democratic agenda.

"I think the issue of being nervous about the Virginia electorate was overdone and I think Creigh did exactly what the McDonnell campaign hoped he would do, which was distance himself from the president and national issues," Kaine said.

2010 will be a base election. Any Democrat hoping to meet a fate similar to Deeds' should follow his campaign plan and abandon the party and its agenda. No one doubts Republicans will be energized. Failure or success next year will come down to whether our side turns out.

www.dailykos.com

[Cha]

1. Not that briiliant,

Deeds.

Thank you, Tim Kaine.

[TheWraith]

2. Kaine is 100% correct here.

Republicans came out to vote. Democrats didn't, because they didn't care for a candidate who wasn't going to embrace certain things like healthcare reform, no matter how noxious the Republican was. And the Indies sensed that Deeds was afraid.

[leveymg]

3. That's precisely what I wrote 2 weeks ago. Good to see Kaine has rejoined the reality-based

community. See my Journal:

Numbers in VA Debacle Show that Dem Turnout Low Because Party Base Turned-Off
Posted by leveymg in General Discussion
Thu Nov 05th 2009, 01:12 PM
Don't believe the soothing words of the Blue Dog pollsters, big-wigs and other DC smoke screeners. The disastrous defeat of Democratic candidate Craig Deeds in the Virginia Governor's race was not a local thing. Not a flash in the pan, at all. The SCALE of the defeat was certainly not typical. One has to go back more than half a century to find a similar State House massacre in the Old Dominion.

The 60/40 defeat of Deeds is not typical of VA Governor's races. Nor, was the comparatively low Dem turnout. Put the two together, and you have a major event that some of the party leadership don't want you talking about. Here are the numbers that show what happened.

MORE

[Uncle Joe]

4. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, WI_DEM

[HipChick]

5. He left out the part about Deeds being a dork...lousy communicator

and although I listened to some townhalls.. I still dont know what he was for

[vadawg]

9. yup, for me i had no idea what the guy was about other than saying im not the other guy

he just didnt inspire people to go out and vote for him, and the negative ads just backfired big time, i swear its like the dude who made them for him was working in the other camp...

[Fumesucker]

6. From where I sit, up here in the cheap seats, it looks like most of the party has abandoned..

The Democratic platform.. Which among other things affirms a woman's right to choose for herself.

And I don't recall it supporting forcing people to buy a worthless and overpriced product from greedy private corporations either.

[RedCloud]

7. Repugs got a huge turnout from their smaller base.

here's the vote for the governor:

Candidate Bob McDonnell Creigh Deeds
Party Republican Democratic
Popular vote 1,158,855 814,566
Percentage 58.65% 41.23%


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_gubernatorial_election,_2009

And now that Obama Va. victory:
Nominee Barack Obama John McCain
Party Democratic Republican
Home state Illinois Arizona
Running mate Joe Biden Sarah Palin
Electoral vote 13 0
Popular vote 1,959,532 1,725,005
Percentage 52.63% 46.33%

The Repugs got 67.18% turnout again and the Democrats got 41.57% comparing the two. So the bastards got their stinking signs out which again went unchallenged in many parts of Virginia.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_Virginia,_2008

[notesdev]

10. Bad baseline to use for the GOP

McCain was a singularly bad candidate who was outright offensive to a good chunk of the GOP base. I'd wager a good 20% of usual GOP voters either stayed home or even voted for Obama instead. So many Republicans hate McCain that I knew from the moment he clinched the nomination that the Democratic nominee would be a landslide winner.

To this day, I still can't figure out how he managed to capture the nomination. He is really a very widely despised figure.

[notesdev]

8. in 2008 people voted for change

since then, they've learned that the Democratic Party is not going to be the deliverer thereof, and so they stay home.

Pretty simple.