More Newspaper Endorsements for Deeds

Not only has The Washington Post endorsed Creigh Deeds for Governor of Virginia, so has The Virginian-Pilot, The Roanoke Times, as well as the state’s largest African-American newspaper, the Richmond Free Press.  In my neighborhood in Fairfax County, the Deeds campaign is already touting The Post endorsement with yard signs, just as they did leading up to the Democratic primary when Deeds was endorsed by The Post.

President Obama in new ad for Creigh Deeds

Watch this and remember what last year was like and ask yourself what do you want to feel like on the day after the election when we know who our next Governor will be. Now ask yourself, what are you going to do to ensure our next Governor is Creigh Deeds.

Washington Post: Deeds has “Good Sense and Political Courage”

Creigh's for me!

The Washington Post has endorsed Democratic State Sen. Creigh Deeds as its choice for Governor of Virginia. The Post’s editorial highlights Sen. Deeds’s biggest strength in his campaign against right wing Republican Bob McDonnell: only Deeds has a workable plan to fix Virginia’s transportation problem.

The Post writes that Deeds, “has the good sense and political courage to maintain the forward-looking policies of the past while addressing the looming challenge of fixing the state’s dangerously inadequate roads,” while McDonnell, ”offers something different: a blizzard of bogus, unworkable, chimerical proposals, repackaged as new ideas, that crumble on contact with reality. They would do little if anything to build a better transportation system.”

On President Obama and the Nobel Peace Prize

Like many around the world I was surprised to hear the news that President Obama was named this year’s winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. But unlike the President’s unrelenting critics, I was pleasantly surprised.

But I do think it’s worth noting that many of the President’s supporters, indeed the President himself, joined Obama’s critics in saying that the honor was not deserved. In my view, they are all missing the point. What the Nobel committee’s decision recognizes is that the world changed on November 4, 2008. The rest of the world never thought we would elect a one term black Senator in his 40s. Given our history of racial and ethnic discrimination, they didn’t believe we had it in us.

Most Americans still don’t fully understand the level of disregard and disgust that the rest of the world viewed America prior to President Obama’s election. Almost overnight, in one November day, that hatred dissipated. In its place, the world began to take a second look at the U.S. and Americans.

In my view, when we  elected President Obama we sent the signal to the rest of the world that America was pressing the pause button on the trajectory that President Bush had our country on. We said to the world we want a new direction. And most importantly, we confounded those who hate our country, who never thought we would elect the candidate who called for an end to the war in Iraq and an end to the prison in Guantanamo.

But now, with this Nobel prize, the awards committee is laying down a challenge to the President and to our country. Make good on your promises. Use your potential. Do the good things you have in you.

Some say this decision to give the President the Nobel Peace Prize was a mistake. Perhaps. But not if it spurs the President to use his extraordinary leadership and communications skills to lead the U.S. and the world to a more peaceful coexistence.

Rev. James Dobson: Only GOP “Can Save America from National Disaster”

Wayne Slater, a reporter with the Dallas Morning News, has a shocking blog post and video of the Rev. James Dobson speaking to the super-secret Council for National Policy. What’s the Council for National Policy you ask? Basically it’s a club for right wing nut job preachers and right wing social conservative political activists.  Bob McDonnell’s friend and mentor, Rev. Pat Robertson is a member. (Maybe if Robertson can pull enough strings to get McDonnell elected Governor of Virginia, McDonnell would be eligible for membership.)

Rev. Dobson warns that only a resurgence of Republican power can “save America from national disaster.” Watch. If this doesn’t scare you, you’re not paying attention.

Bob McDonnell Gets Political Advice from Nancy Pfotenhauer

Recently, Bob McDonnell, the GOP nominee for Governor of Virginia, went out to Oakton, Virginia to see Nancy Pfotenauer, the Republican activist and former spokeswoman for John McCain’s failed presidential campaign.

Readers will remember that Ms. Pfotenhauer is my muse and the inspiration for this blog. She’s been staying out of the spotlight since her declaration that “real Virginians” were people who supported McCain and who didn’t live in Northern Virginia. (Obama supporters like me were “Fake Virginians” in her mind.)

Since McCain’s defeat, Ms. Pfotenhauer is still active behind the scenes. (Currently, she’s working to defeat efforts to reform health insurance because she believes affordable health insurance will be bad for women — I am not making this up.)

Anyway, Ms. Pfotenhauer wants to help McDonnell get elected. My “hidden cameras” captured this footage from their meeting at Ms. Pfotenhauer’s Oakton home. Check it out.

What Politico Won’t Tell You About Jonathan Martin

I am a big fan of Politico and of the work of their reporter, Jonathan Martin. But I do question the decision of Politico’s editors to require (or continue to allow) Martin to write about the Virginia Governor’s race. Politico should disclose to its readers Martin’s history in Republican politics and in Virginia and Connecticut politics.

Since they won’t, I will.