Virginia Mega Thread: The Youngkin Administration

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Do we buy this?

https://twitter.com/Redistrict/status/1391777855474999298?s=20

https://twitter.com/Redistrict/status/1391781567119364098?s=20

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Really impressive

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCKoREtKurY&feature=emb_title

Confusing ad actually,  McAuliffe already won the primary.  Why would tying him to Trump help Youngkin?  Youngkin is putting out ads every minute about how much Trump loves him.   What's the aim here?

He's probably going to run this ad in NoVA to try to depress Democratic turnout. The problem is if/when Trump finds out about the ad and then does something to sabotage Youngkin.

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This is going to trigger some folks here.

Terry McAuliffe says $3.5T reconciliation price tag is 'too high'

National politics seeped into Tuesday night’s Virginia governor debate, with the candidates weighing in on the reconciliation price tag, the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan and a potential 2024 presidential run for former President Donald Trump.

Former Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe said he thought $3.5 trillion was “too high” for the Democrats‘ reconciliation bill.

“They got to stop their little chitty-chat up there, and it is time for them to pass it. Let’s get this infrastructure bill passed for America,” McAuliffe said, slamming lawmakers for this week’s chaotic back-and-forth on how to get President Joe Biden’s infrastructure package through Congress.

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https://twitter.com/daveweigel/status/1448446027657359365?s=20

Is Godwin's Law even applicable anymore when the Trumpists are copying Nazi propaganda techniques with this and Ashli "Horst Wessel" Babbitt?

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Talk about gaffes, Youngkin's personal instinct is a "no" on same-sex marriage:

https://twitter.com/RTDSchapiro/status/1451506339931463680

This is probably less of a gaffe than you think. I checked at least two recent polls about same-sex marriage and they asked if it should be legal, not whether they personally approve of it. Someone should run a more careful poll on this but I believe that the opinion "no I don't approve of same-sex marriage, however they should be legal" will have substantial support, and that's the view that Youngkin is expressing here.

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Democrats are definitly panicking, you don't get that kind of VP engagment unless polls are showing something scary.

All these people went and campaigned with Gavin Newsom just a few months ago.  How did that election turn out?

Biden was in a much better position then. California is also way bluer than both Virginia and New Jersey, and Elder was a much weaker candidate than Youngkin or Ciattarelli.

I'm not sure buy this because at the time Biden was being hit by a very bad news cycle when it came to Afghanistan and the delta wave was doing devastating damage around the country.

today Biden may not be in the greatest shape, but I would argue that he currently in a far better position than he was in August and September of 2021

This just isn't true. Sorry, Afghanistan wasn't the only thing that brought down his approval. The fact that it's even worse today should tell you something. Maybe the way the media looks at how "successful" Biden is on any given week/month/etc. doesn't line up with the way Americans view him, shockingly.

At no point in my original post did I ever make the claim that Afghanistan was the only thing that brought down Biden approval, so I'm not sure where the criticism is even coming from because I specifically said in my original post that Afghanistan and the Delta wave was hurting Biden around that time.

Also to be clear when I said biden was in better postion I was not talking about his polls

I was saying that the political environment of August 2021 was way worse than October 2021 because on on every level from the covid to the economy things were just not going well at all

In October while Bidens polls may be worse everything that is currently going on around him is better. Covid has massively declined since august and it now looks like he does have at least a decent shot at getting his agenda passed something that I was not sure sure about a few months ago

No, everything that's going on around him is not better, people are now feeling the effects of inflation and supply shortages and that is even overriding COVID as a concern. It wasn't as bad in August, and given that this never happened under Trump it's natural for people to blame the party in charge. Who cares that Biden might pass a bill to fix some roads and shovel some money at other people when they're feeling negative effects of inflation and empty store shelves now? Now there are good arguments for why it's not Biden's fault or they can fix it, but he and the Democratic party need to make the case to the people and so far they have not done a good job. For awhile they even denied that it was a problem, I remember Joe even saying that inflation was a good thing because it meant wages would rise.

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Democrats are definitly panicking, you don't get that kind of VP engagment unless polls are showing something scary.

All these people went and campaigned with Gavin Newsom just a few months ago.  How did that election turn out?

Biden was in a much better position then. California is also way bluer than both Virginia and New Jersey, and Elder was a much weaker candidate than Youngkin or Ciattarelli.

I'm not sure buy this because at the time Biden was being hit by a very bad news cycle when it came to Afghanistan and the delta wave was doing devastating damage around the country.

today Biden may not be in the greatest shape, but I would argue that he currently in a far better position than he was in August and September of 2021

This just isn't true. Sorry, Afghanistan wasn't the only thing that brought down his approval. The fact that it's even worse today should tell you something. Maybe the way the media looks at how "successful" Biden is on any given week/month/etc. doesn't line up with the way Americans view him, shockingly.

At no point in my original post did I ever make the claim that Afghanistan was the only thing that brought down Biden approval, so I'm not sure where the criticism is even coming from because I specifically said in my original post that Afghanistan and the Delta wave was hurting Biden around that time.

Also to be clear when I said biden was in better postion I was not talking about his polls

I was saying that the political environment of August 2021 was way worse than October 2021 because on on every level from the covid to the economy things were just not going well at all

In October while Bidens polls may be worse everything that is currently going on around him is better. Covid has massively declined since august and it now looks like he does have at least a decent shot at getting his agenda passed something that I was not sure sure about a few months ago

No, everything that's going on around him is not better, people are now feeling the effects of inflation and supply shortages and that is even overriding COVID as a concern. It wasn't as bad in August, and given that this never happened under Trump it's natural for people to blame the party in charge. Who cares that Biden might pass a bill to fix some roads and shovel some money at other people when they're feeling negative effects of inflation and empty store shelves now? Now there are good arguments for why it's not Biden's fault or they can fix it, but he and the Democratic party need to make the case to the people and so far they have not done a good job. For awhile they even denied that it was a problem, I remember Joe even saying that inflation was a good thing because it meant wages would rise.

Wow, this comment kind of caught me off guard

I will just say this maybe something like that does not matter where you live, but down here in Louisiana there are a lot of people who do care about infrastructure and the jobs that it will provide them.

I can tell you this I have not met a single person in this very conservative state who has told me that they don't care about infrastructure anymore because of inflation. Not even my trump supporting co-workers would even say something like that

You have a good point, everyone agrees infrastructure needs work and the spending on that is sorely needed. However there are a couple of problems with it:

1. Dems didn't take the win in August when it was offered to them, instead they descended into infighting about the reconciliation bill which has overshadowed the infrastructure bill, to the point that people have almost forgotten about it.

2. Where I live there is a lot of "I'll believe it when I see it" attitude when it comes to infrastructure spending. Politicians have talked about fixing the tunnels, bridges, NYC subway, NJT trains, etc forever, and money has been shoveled at it, yet they just get worse and worse and improvement projects seemingly take forever with no perceivable result.

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I agree that if you're running false flag operations to try to smear your opponent, you're probably not winning. I was all about to blame the loss on progressives for holding up the infrastructure bill, but if this is how McAuliffe campaigns then he brought the loss upon himself.

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This was reported on NBC29, a local news. Again, it appears that Non Swing Voter is blatantly lying.

I think it's becoming over blown and even I think it won't change any voters.

Most dems I know think its funny.

-- fairfax resident who thinks youngkin ayala and herring win

Um, this most certainly should not be funny to anyone on the left. Remember when Trump and his toadies called the Jan. 6 insurrectionists Antifa/BLM false flag provocateurs? Do you really want to give them legitimate ammunition for such claims?

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Imagine being excited about a governor's election in a state you don't live in / have probably never been to... based on fake polls... over a race that your guy (a billionaire loser) will lose...

Dude, instead of spamming away on this thread, since you clearly care deeply about this race, why not volunteer your services to the Virginia Democratic Party and do some phone banking? Maybe go out and canvass for T-Mac, or organize some local events? Drive some folks to the polls since early voting is on?

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In a tight Virginia race, Covid concerns still make campaigning difficult for Democrats

While Republicans more or less kept up their normal ground game throughout the pandemic, Democrats last year halted all in-person operations for months during the height of the presidential campaign.

Even now, in Virginia's critical gubernatorial race, some progressives say they're still having a difficult time getting people to volunteer in person, though vaccines have helped ease concerns.

“We have noticed a lot more people eager to help, but not necessarily eager to knock on doors. It's been tough,” said Maya Castillo, the political director for New Virginia Majority, which organizes communities of color.

Is the excuse making already starting for a McAuliffe loss? My views on the virus and pandemic are pretty well known here but even I think this is a very poor excuse. The local Democratic party can buy N95 masks and give them out to the canvassers, plus tell them to back up from the door. Canvassing would also be considered a public-facing job so they could even get a booster shot. Combine these and canvassers are quite safe from COVID-19. The pandemic is no longer a valid reason to avoid in-person canvassing and if Dems do so it is unilateral disarmament. 

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In a tight Virginia race, Covid concerns still make campaigning difficult for Democrats

While Republicans more or less kept up their normal ground game throughout the pandemic, Democrats last year halted all in-person operations for months during the height of the presidential campaign.

Even now, in Virginia's critical gubernatorial race, some progressives say they're still having a difficult time getting people to volunteer in person, though vaccines have helped ease concerns.

“We have noticed a lot more people eager to help, but not necessarily eager to knock on doors. It's been tough,” said Maya Castillo, the political director for New Virginia Majority, which organizes communities of color.

Is the excuse making already starting for a McAuliffe loss? My views on the virus and pandemic are pretty well known here but even I think this is a very poor excuse. The local Democratic party can buy N95 masks and give them out to the canvassers, plus tell them to back up from the door. Canvassing would also be considered a public-facing job so they could even get a booster shot. Combine these and canvassers are quite safe from COVID-19. The pandemic is no longer a valid reason to avoid in-person canvassing and if Dems do so it is unilateral disarmament. 

A huge component of canvassing involves reaching people who aren't easily accessible to online/digital communication, specifically older people. Many young people (the main canvassers) are still a little hesitant about reaching out to old people because of the still-existing risks, and older liberals in particular are really quite hesitant still.

Obviously this is a bad thing since it fundamentally hurts the Democrat's abilities to reach out to its base, but I don't know if telling everyone "suck it up, it's fine" is a good move, especially since McAuliffe is running on a partial platform that Youngkin doesn't care about public health.

I understand why they are hesitant, but if the Democratic party supplies them with N95 masks, which are plentiful now, and the canvassing job gives them the right to get booster shots, which preliminary data indicates could restore sterilizing immunity, then it's not really telling them to suck it up, but instead protecting them to a great degree.

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More excuse-making from McAuliffe, this time blaming Biden for not bringing the progressives in line. This leak could have come from only one place, T-Mac. Is this how a campaign behaves when it is confident in victory?

The former Virginia governor and his top aides, who have been pushing congressional and White House officials to pass the bill for over a month, were both stunned and infuriated, according to Democrats. They were amazed Ms. Pelosi had been forced to delay the vote for the second time in a month, baffled why the president didn’t make a more aggressive push and despairing about the impact of yet another round of negative stories from Washington.

“The last two-and-a-half months makes it look like Democrats are in disarray,” said Representative Filemon Vela, a Texas Democrat who has raised money for Mr. McAuliffe.

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Pretty funny I am more optimistic on Tmac and the VA Dem ticket then most now. While many on election twitter have declared it a GOP state.

You're more optimistic than TMac himself who sent out two leaks this weekend preemptively making excuses for an upcoming loss, plus of course the false flag tiki torch incident.

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Pretty funny I am more optimistic on Tmac and the VA Dem ticket then most now. While many on election twitter have declared it a GOP state.

You're more optimistic than TMac himself who sent out two leaks this weekend preemptively making excuses for an upcoming loss, plus of course the false flag tiki torch incident.

none of this came from the McAuliffe campaign

the reaching is real

2 articles I saw today (linked earlier in this thread):

1. T-Mac campaign has hard time finding people to do in-person canvassing because Dem volunteers are concerned about the virus

2. T-Mac campaign frustrated with Biden for not putting progressives in line and getting bills passed

These could only have come from the T-Mac campaign, and they're making excuses. Combined with the false flag tiki torch, this is clearly a campaign that thinks it's about to lose. What, do you think Youngkin or the Republican Party are leaking fake news to try to demoralize Dems? Or is it that the media hates Dems and loves Trump and made up the fake news themselves? 

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Is it time to blame Manchin for Tmacs loss yet?

No, but it might be time to blame Jayapal and Sanders.

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https://twitter.com/goparlington/status/1455571695604019204?s=20

Finally, some voter suppression we can get behind. A deal could be cut here, the Republicans get their voter ID requirements while Democrats can require masks. It's utterly nonsensical that a mask mandate would prevent anyone from voting, but here we are.

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Maybe the turnout reports can stop now that we have an indication for how the voters are actually thinking?

The exit poll has moved PredictIt back to around 50-50 from 60-40 Dem earlier in the day.

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I know this analogy has been beaten to death... but that Fairfax early vote drop really might bring back memories of a certain South Florida county if this exit poll is right.

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There’s an interesting article on POLITICO which says that a lot of McAuliffe’s attacks actually helped ramp up turnout in the western part of the state.

That came from Trump making this claim on Tuesday night, lol. However he was on to something, say what you will about the Orange Man but he does have good political instincts even if they make no sense to normies like us not playing 8D chess.