Virginia Mega Thread: The Youngkin Administration

[roxas11]

To be honest, I'm actually glad that Cook and others are acting like the race is a real tossup

This news will force Dems not get complacent and it will also end up being a far bigger deal if Dems do end up winning big in Virginia because this time around the media won't be able to simply dismiss the victory because it was in a blue state since they were the one who insisted that the race was a toss up in the first place lol

[roxas11]

To be honest, I'm actually glad that Cook and others are acting like the race is a real tossup

Acting like? They say wherever data leads.

This news will force Dems not get complacent and it will also end up being a far bigger deal if Dems do end up winning big in Virginia because this time around the media won't be able to simply dismiss the victory because it was in a blue state since they were the one who insisted that the race was a toss up in the first place lol

I guess, you try to make a comparison with CA (media didn't "dismissed" the victory there btw)? Biden is quite popular there, but likely is underwater here. Dems will probably still win, but a relatively close race is not a good news for Dems.

Also, what media says it's a toss up? Cook is for nerds, literally no one else knows who they are. Imo, media says it Lean D. If anything, they will spin it as a win for D, even if the results turns out to be relatively close.

1. Acting like? They say wherever data leads.

Cook report is no different than Politico or any other news media website. They are just as click driven as everybody else' and you are fooling yourself if you honestly don't think that plays a role in what narratives they try to push on social media

2. Media didn't "dismissed" the victory there btw)?

This is statement is just flat out wrong because many Fox News commentators not only dismissed the victory in California they also said not to read too much into the results because California was a very blue state.

3. Also, what media says it's a toss up?

CBS literally just posted a video on youtube saying that race it now tightening


4. Cook is for nerds, literally no one else knows who they are.

This statement is just silly because The news media regularly use's The Cook Report in the headlines of their stories and here is an example

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/13/us/elections/cook-report-calls-democrats-the-clear-favorite-to-take-senate-control-as-races-tilt-leftward.html

Sorry Vaccinated Russian Bear but trying to pass The Cook Political Report off as some unknown media organization that nobody really knows about is ridiculous. With the help of the big media companies their reports end up getting seen by a lot more people than just a few nerds on the internet


5. Media says it Lean D. If anything, they will spin it as a win for D

The media leans toward whatever sells the most newspapers or gets the most clicks on their website. This is a big reason why they focused so much Bill Clinton sex scandals the 90s and it is also the reason why they focused on so much on Trump's many personal scandals recently.

I have no doubt whatsoever that if Biden was facing the same kind of controversies that bill Clinton or Trump faced while in office the so called liberal media would be throwing him under the bus right about now while they push even more negative stories about him for ratings and clicks

[roxas11]

who won the debate

McAuliffe did simply because Youngkin failed to change the fundamentals of the race. Youngkin needs more than a draw or a slight victory in debate in order to stand any change of winning in Virigina.

He needed to radically change the direction of the race and so far he has failed to do that

[roxas11]

McAuliffe says “unpopular” Biden is drag on his campaign

Virginia gubernatorial Democrat candidate Terry McAuliffe cast President Joe Biden and his party’s lawmakers in Congress as a liability in the final weeks of the campaign, with polls showing a tightening race. “We are facing a lot of headwinds from Washington,” McAuliffe, a former head of the Democratic National Committee, said during a virtual rally with supporters Tuesday. “As you know, the president is unpopular today, unfortunately, here in Virginia, so we’ve got to plow through.”

Read more at: https://www.tri-cityherald.com/news/politics-government/national-politics/article254818092.html#storylink=cpy

Biden is not even that unpopular and Based on 538 he currently has a 44 percent approval rating. True its mediocre, but that is nothing compared to where Trump was at this point or even other past presidents.

Biden has literally only been below 40 percent in the 1 poll and that is the Quinnipiac University poll. Nothing else that has came before or even since matches the results of that 1 outlier poll. Even Rasmussen currently has biden at 45 percent and that mutch higher than the Quinnipiac poll that claimed that biden is a 38 percent

by comparsion Trump would be lucky if could find any poll showing him at 40 percent and even Obama had faced a much bigger backlash in 2009 since the economy was way worse at the time than it currently is right now under Biden

[roxas11]

POLITICO has run out of all other dems in disarray takes, so now we're focusing on fundraising emails - which historically have *always* been alarmist. This is just getting embarrassing

https://twitter.com/politico/status/1447230803189145613

The irony is that Politico is doing exactly the same thing they are accusing Terry McAuliffe of

They are acting like an alarmist in order to convince people to give them more money or specifically in the case of Politico they are doing it to get more clicks on their website in order to please their advertisers...

[roxas11]

You sound EXACTLY like trumpkins

Nuh-uhh story fake because I don’t like the source!

It’s not just daily wire at this point reporting this

I think this attack was unfair

If I posted a big news story, but I used MSNBC as a credible source than you would have every right to criticize me for doing something like that because Rather you like it or not where we get our information really does matter and it will determine how people are going to perceive the news stories that you or even I post on here

you say that others are also reporting about this, then why not use them instead of The Daily Wire or better yet next time just use multiple sources because that would actually make it harder for others to completely dismiss what you have to say

[roxas11]

Since McAuliffe's entire strategy is Youngkin = Trump, I wonder how that sits with Democrats if they lose this. I'm still expecting a narrow McAuliffe win but I can't imagine going into 2022 thinking a Trump clone just won a state Biden won by 10 (but of course, he's not a Trump clone, not even close).

And if Youngkin loses, it'll really cement the idea that Virginia is done with the Republican Party medium/long term. If they can't win when the national winds are favoring them and Biden is unpopular and McAuliffe has run this lousy of a campaign they probably can't win any time in the near future.

Agree completely (I also think Youngkin would beat McAuliffe in any remotely competitive state except maybe GA), but I wonder if 'minimalist' single-issue themes/campaigns might be more effective than we think. Hickenlooper's entire campaign could be reduced to "Gardner = Trump", Tuberville's to "I support Donald Trump", Rick Scott's to "Bill Nelson had four decades to fix this", Todd Young's to "I’m a marine, not a lobbyist," Maggie Hassan's to "We need a Senator who will put Granite Staters ahead of special interests", etc. All of these candidates sounded incredibly repetitive and clearly gave scripted answers all the time, but apparently it was all that was needed from the candidate him- or herself (while outside groups took care of the negative ads, obviously) to ride the state's partisan lean to victory. Even Mark Udall, who was widely mocked for his seemingly obsessive focus on abortion, only lost by two points back when CO was only D-leaning and not deep blue like VA/CO today. He’d win easily even with a literal single-issue abortion campaign today, and VA isn’t that much more R than CO.

McAuliffe is many things but he’s no dummy, so I don’t think he’d be pushing this "Youngkin = Trump and no abortions" message so hard if he didn’t consider it an effective strategy. He also drove home the abortion message in 2013 when he painted Cuccinelli as an extremist, and it worked for him then (again, when VA was already a strongly D-leaning state but less D than it is today). There’s a case to be made that a largely negative campaign that drives home no more than one or two themes and doesn’t allow itself to be distracted no matter what is a winning formula in today's world of political campaigning. Now obviously you’re right that Republicans were never going to win this race if they can’t even win it under current conditions, but it’s an interesting pattern nonetheless. (And like I said, I don’t think McAuliffe's strategy would have worked in any remotely competitive state this year.)

To be honest I think the texas abortion law was the worst thing they could have ever happend to Youngkin's campaign

before that moment I was also not convinced that McAuliffe's strategy was going to work, but after the Texas abortion law Youngkin comments about going on “offense” on abortion if he became governor did scare the heck of a lot of Virgina voters. McAuliffe's support among female voters is a big reason why he still leads in most polls despite Youngkin getting decent support from independent voters

had the Republican not been pushing those crazy laws it may have been a tougher for McAuliffe to convince voters that Youngkin is a major threat when comes to abortion, but as things stand people are clearly very worried about that and that is a major reason why the Supreme Court approval rating dropped to record lows after approving the tax abortion law

votes may not think the Youngkin is the next trump, but you better believe that he is in big trouble if female voters think that that he is going to start pushing TX style abortion laws the second he becomes governor

[roxas11]

I’m just not convinced abortion in general is some huge net loser for either party

The polling on abortion in America is incoherent

People want it legal, but they also have large margins want it restricted after a while

How can someone be “pro life”, but only after x weeks?

How can someone be “pro choice”, but oops, no choice allowed for you, young lady who is too far along in term

Doesn’t make sense

In the past, I would have agreed you, but Roe v. Wade is under threat in a way that I have never seen before.

for example, in my lifetime at no point was I ever convinced that Roe v. Wade could ever be overturned, but in 2021 I don't feel that way anymore and I suspect that a lot of voters feel the same way

Also the TX abortion law is far more extreme than anything that Republicans have ever done in the past and not even Reagan himself would have publicly supported an anti abortion bill that had no exceptions for rape or incest

[roxas11]

The virginia race (and other races at this point) are illustrating what is wrong with american politics. Things are way, WAY too nationalized. A truly intellectual voter wouldn't give 2 sh**ts about trump or biden in a gubernatorial race.

Whatever happened to the radical idea that your vote for governor should be determined by your VIEWS OF THE CANDIDATES AND THEIR POLICIES.

It makes me so angry to hear rural VA voters in interviews cite "biden and the border" and urban frumpy, educated women cite "trump" when asked about their views of the VA race.

It is bad news, all around. State parties should be penalized and rewarded for how their state is doing, not for how the national parties are perceived. We are entering an era where state parties can drive their states into the ground with horrible policy and voters don't punish them because a vote for a local candidate of the opposing party is somehow seen as "voting for the national opposing party"

This needs to end, quickly. A pox on ANYONE who votes for youngkin solely because trump said so, or for mcauliffe because "i hate trump" '

it's lazy, it's not scholarly, and you sound like a low iq, social media addicted loser.

It used to not be this way, as late as 2014.

voters in louisiana had no problem voting D for governor after gop misrule

voters in maryland voted gop after dem misrule

voters in CT nearly elected gop governor

illinois elected gop governor

North carolina elected dem governor

it's f'n bs what is happening now.

Its Glenn Youngkins own fault for that because in that now infamous video when he was asked if he would support defunding Planned Parenthood and a ban on abortion

This was his response

I’m going to be really honest with you, the short answer is in this campaign I can’t. When I’m governor, and I have a majority in the House, we can start going on offense. But as a campaign topic, sadly, that in fact won’t win me independent votes that I have to get.


Somebody like Larry hogan or any other moderate Republican would have never responded to that question like that. If Youngkin truly belived that this election had nothing to do with national politics he would have never even entertained the idea of getting into a fight with Planned Parenthood in the first place.

Glenn Youngkin private comments made it clear to me that he does now want to be the next Larry hogan he wants to be the next Ron Desantis and Greg Abbott

So while I overall agree with your premise that things are becoming too nationalized. Lets not for 1 second fool ourselves into thinking that Glenn Youngkin will be a governor who will ignore national politics lol

[roxas11]

The virginia race (and other races at this point) are illustrating what is wrong with american politics. Things are way, WAY too nationalized. A truly intellectual voter wouldn't give 2 sh**ts about trump or biden in a gubernatorial race.

Whatever happened to the radical idea that your vote for governor should be determined by your VIEWS OF THE CANDIDATES AND THEIR POLICIES.

It makes me so angry to hear rural VA voters in interviews cite "biden and the border" and urban frumpy, educated women cite "trump" when asked about their views of the VA race.

It is bad news, all around. State parties should be penalized and rewarded for how their state is doing, not for how the national parties are perceived. We are entering an era where state parties can drive their states into the ground with horrible policy and voters don't punish them because a vote for a local candidate of the opposing party is somehow seen as "voting for the national opposing party"

This needs to end, quickly. A pox on ANYONE who votes for youngkin solely because trump said so, or for mcauliffe because "i hate trump" '

it's lazy, it's not scholarly, and you sound like a low iq, social media addicted loser.

It used to not be this way, as late as 2014.

voters in louisiana had no problem voting D for governor after gop misrule

voters in maryland voted gop after dem misrule

voters in CT nearly elected gop governor

illinois elected gop governor

North carolina elected dem governor

it's f'n bs what is happening now.

Its Glenn Youngkins own fault for that because in that now infamous video when he was asked if he would support defunding Planned Parenthood and a ban on abortion

This was his response

I’m going to be really honest with you, the short answer is in this campaign I can’t. When I’m governor, and I have a majority in the House, we can start going on offense. But as a campaign topic, sadly, that in fact won’t win me independent votes that I have to get.


Somebody like Larry hogan or any other moderate Republican would have never responded to that question like that. If Youngkin truly belived that this election had nothing to do with national politics he would have never even entertained the idea of getting into a fight with Planned Parenthood in the first place.

Glenn Youngkin private comments made it clear to me that he does now want to be the next Larry hogan he wants to be the next Ron Desantis and Greg Abbott

So while I overall agree with your premise that things are becoming too nationalized. Lets not for 1 second fool ourselves into thinking that Glenn Youngkin will be a governor who will ignore national politics lol

Virginia isn't Maryland. Most of Youngkin's votes (even if he wins) will be coming from Republicans, he just needs quite a few Democrats and independents too.
He can't campaign as a RINO because then Republicans won't vote for him and he'll lose even worse.

True, but Virginia also is not Alabama or Mississippi

We simply can't ignore the fact that this is a state that has voted for Obama, Hillary Clinton and now Joe Biden while increasingly rejecting the republican party

It is not a smart strategy at all for Youngkin to be runing around the state telling people that he is going on offense against abortion and planned parenthood if he wins. Being caught making foolish statements like that makes it a lot harder for him to win over a those Democrat and independent voters that he really needs.

[roxas11]

This article provides literally zero proof that the GOP message on education is or isn't working with Suburban moderates. If anything, the few legitimate data points it includes points to no. But let's not get in front of the narrative we're trying to achieve!

https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/1449755843403124739

What narrative?

It's an interesting article about that [VA] GOP sees education as an opening. Further, the article says, that GOP will use it nationally, if it will have worked in VA election. The article doesn't claim, it will work, they say, GOP thinks it might work.

You should stop "unskewing" articles  

Youngkin could be an example for Republicans to use in next year's congressional midterm elections.

“If Youngkin is able to improve his margins in suburbs that have gone from red to blue over the past decade in Virginia, we could see this used as a blueprint in the midterms in certain place," she added.

The media tends to push the narrative that the president's party is in trouble even when it does not always reflect reailty. A perfect example of this is when the media thought Bill Clintion impeachment would sink his party in the 1998 midterms only to be shocked when the Democrats actually gained seats that year


The reality is the media will always say that the president's party is struggling because it provides them with more clicks on their websites and allows them to get bigger ratings by claiming that the president's party must win almost every election leading up to midterms otherwise they are in trouble. they did it with Obama, Trump and now they are doing it with Biden
 
If some don't like the narrative the media is pushing right now than just wait till we get to 2022 because the Midterm year is when the media really start finding any negative thing they can in order to make the party in power look as bad as possible. For example, Obama response to Ebola was successful, but that was not how the media portrayed it at all during the 2014 election year and Based on how they were acting you would have thought that Ebola wiped out most of the US population lol

[roxas11]

Poll after poll shows CRT is not popular.

Parents want their kids learning the 3 Rs and basic history

1. They don't actually know what it is, and that it isn't being advocated for in public schooling as much as they think by either educators or Democrats.

2. Does that mean they will vote on that? Prioritizing it over the economy, pandemic, etc.?

3. Will they even remember it when the right has moved onto their next culture war fixation?

I'll take these point by point. First of all, if it were true that these voters don't know the definition of CRT, telling them that they're too stupid to understand what it is will just alienate them further. But on top of that, you're telling them to ignore their lying eyes and ears. There have been numerous examples of prominent figures on the left and within various local and state education systems that have described the version of CRT that they want taught in k-12 as being some version of "whiteness" being inherently oppressive. Until the pro-CRT crowd cuts all of those advocates out of their movement, then they'll have to deal with being associated with them.

Second, yeah they absolutely will vote on stuff like this. What do you think a voter cares about more, infrastructure spending or turning their child's classroom into a college socialists' meeting?

As for your third point, I think it will depend. Most culture war issues are designed to preach directly to the choir. Crap like Hunter Biden's laptop, Burisma, Biden's Senate papers, and other similar things all get forgotten within days of the election because it was always manufactured fake news to agitate base voters. Other times, real debates are co-opted by the culture war. I suspect CRT is one of those. Regardless of how many right-wing culture warriors flock towards the specter of CRT, the fact remains that most leftwing activists and officials in this country want critical race theory to be integrated into k-12 education, or at the very least approve of it.

I don't believe that this election will be decided on this issue, but if McAuliffe and every Democrat throughout the country who's interested in statewide office were smart, they'd come out and condemn CRT as bunch of bull that should go back to the academic conference room from whence it came. Don't underestimate the negatives effects that, for lack of a better term, f-cking around with public education can have on a politician's electability. Being on the wrong side of what the voters wanted in regards to schools is exactly what sunk Bevin in a state far redder than Virginia is blue. Now as I've said, I don't believe McAuliffe will lose and I don't believe the CRT discussion is prominent enough in this race to take him down, but defending it or doing anything other than rejecting it outright is like playing with fire.

1. First of all, if it were true that these voters don't know the definition of CRT, telling them that they're too stupid to understand what it is will just alienate them further

I myself have never even heard of CRT until after Trump had lost the election and Not even my republican coworkers knew about it until recently. I asked them to tell me what CRT is and even they could not give me a clear answer. They thought it had something to with the LGBT lol

2. What do you think a voter cares about more, infrastructure spending or turning their child's classroom into a college socialists' meeting?

From my experience living in Louisiana the people who I have met that talk about things like college socialists meetings are not the types who ever have or ever will vote for a democrat in the first place. Maybe where you live stuff like this is a big deal, but even down here in a Republican state like Louisiana people care way more about jobs and infrastructure then do about something like that

3. If McAuliffe and every Democrat throughout the country who's interested in statewide office were smart, they'd come out and condemn CRT as bunch of bull that should go back to the academic conference room from whence it came.

This is like me saying that they should stop teaching ETUOEW in school and when somebody ask me what that means I can't even give them a clear answer yet I still want people to be outraged over it and come out to condemn it

To be clear ETUOEW is something I made up, but at this point it might as well be as real as CRT since it seems like all of have to do these days is go online and claim that Dems wants to put it in all of the classrooms and let the Republicans come up with tons of theories for why ETUOEW is the worst thing ever lol

[roxas11]

Morning Consult has Biden approval at 48/49 for Sept. 14-Oct. 13, 2021.

https://morningconsult.com/2021/10/18/biden-approval-rating-virginia-gubernatorial-race/

This is actually better than I expected for Biden and if those numbers hold I think McAuliffe is winning this.

Glenn Youngkin and the GOP really needs Biden to being doing a lot worse in that state because voters being simply split down the middle when it comes to the president's approval is not going to cut it for Youngkin if actually wants to win this.

[roxas11]

Mcauliffe ends planned news interview early due to “bad questions”

https://mobile.twitter.com/TeamYoungkin/status/1450593236301590540

Well, at least he didn't body slam the reporter like Republican Greg Gianforte did in 2017

Then again Greg Gianforte actually won that race, so maybe doing something like that would actually help Terry McAuliffe lol

[roxas11]

Mcauliffe ends planned news interview early due to “bad questions”

https://mobile.twitter.com/TeamYoungkin/status/1450593236301590540

This is bad.

Don't worry, I'm sure in few days Trump will put out a statement congratulating Terry Mcauliffe for showing that reporter who's boss

[roxas11]

mcauliffe, imo, is doing a disservice to a gubernatorial campaign. I have never in my life seen a candidate make the entire campaign about a former president. ever.

Corzine didn't do it in NJ, the dems didn't do it in va in 2009, etc

Newsom quite successfully used Trump and Covid to his advantage why shouldn’t TMAC do the same.

I am fine with mcauliffe using covid policy in the campaign.

What I am NOT ok with is a person running for governor avoiding talking about any issue specific to his state: education, job policy, spending, taxes, etc, instead opting for vague references to a former president who has absolutely zero bearing on state level policymaking.

It just rubs me the wrong way, that's all. I don't think it is intellectual or interesting.

Youngkin seems to be running a more issues-based campaign.

I do understand why mcaualiffe is doing what he is doing, though: democrats are stalled in DC, and biden's ratings in va are mediocre at  best.

It's going to be insufferable and, frankly, lazy, to see a party go around the country next year screaming "TRUMP TRUMP TRUMP, WHATBOUT TRUMP, NO NO DON'T ASK THAT, ASK ABOUT DRUMPF".

reminds me of GOP and "socialism".

Like I agree with you that it is lazy and unhealthy for all campaigns to follow this model. However it’s honestly like Republicans didn’t just do this under Obama by going Obama bad vote for us. Even under Trump it was all about Pelosi and the radical left.

So I don’t really blame democrats for using this strategy as it’s proven to be effective in states that lean in your parties direction.

I get it, but considering the polling in va suggests a tighter race than the state has been in recent years, maybe mcauliffe needs to start talking about the issues more.

trump is yesterday's news to many voters.

Had this been any other former president, I would agree with this, but in the case of Trump I'm not sure I buy this. Looking at the recent results in California Trump is clearly still on the minds of a lot of voters and there is no doubt that there is a fear of Trumpism especially if Republicans nominate more candidates like Larry elders

now having said that I do agree that in case of virginia glenn youngkin does not come off as a crazy trump nut and that is what is helping him to at least keep the race close.

On the other hand abortion is this issue that is hurting Glenn youngkin the most and that is a big reason why terry mcauliffe is still leading in most polls. Mcauliffe needs to be more focused on that and less on this idea of convincing voters that Glenn youngkin is the next like Larry elders

[roxas11]

I've phonebanked for Ds before, and even the week of, you're still calling the reliable D base to make sure they're voting or have voted already, so I don't know what to make of Snow Labrador's post, if it's even true.

I also know people that phonebanked for Ds and like you they also said that a week before the election, they mainly focused on calling to remind people who have already said they will support the Dems to come out and vote because At this stage in the race it is mainly about getting your hardcore base out and not tying to find potential new voters

So the idea that anyone would be phonebanking for the Dems at this point and just randomly run across a bunch Glenn youngkin supporters seems odd and very unlikely to me.

[roxas11]

@xingkerui

Another "advice" is to read, what experts think is going on. I've already linked to Cook, whose rating was dismissed by forum expert wbrock as "click-bate" (it's doubtful, he or she has even read it, though), falsely claiming they had bad records. Here is another one
https://twitter.com/InsideElections/status/1451622826885009410

But I'm sure, you'll discard it as click-bate/doomerism whatever, will ya?

The article is basically saying that it is still an uphill battle for the Republicans and Dems still have the advantage. It really didn't tell us anything that we did not already know nor did they really convince me that race has fundamentally changed all that much

If anything the main takeaway from this article for me is that despite everything that has gone wrong for dems Glenn Youngkin is still failing to either take the lead or at least turn the race into a tossup. I'm sorry, but at this point in the race neither Glenn Youngkin or his supporters should be celebrating the fact that he is still behind Terry Mcauliffe.

The Republicans can spin it as much as they like, but at some point being behind is not going to cut it for Glenn Youngkin if he really wants to win this. ​The reality for Youngkin is that if he is still failing to take the lead in this race a few days from now than it is probably over for him and Terry Mcauliffe is heading for a victory

[roxas11]

The blue avatars saying Terry isn't running a good campaign / Youngkin is fundamentally have no idea what Virginia voters want to hear as far as messaging.  I'm sure Youngkin's message appeals to an Iowa, Montana, or Florida electorate.  It doesn't work in Virginia.  Unfortunately, he's not running in Iowa.

Then why is the race so close?

I'm not completely convinced that this race is close

Cleary many in the media would love for this it to be a toss up, but honestly, there is very little evidence that it actually is and it would not shock me at all if terry mcauliffe actually ended winning by a much bigger margin than the polls are currently saying.

I recently looked at the polls for the 2017 Virigina governor's race and I surprised at just how wrong most of them were at the time.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2017/governor/va/virginia_governor_gillespie_vs_northam-6197.html



The polls made the race look close, especially at the end when it looked like it was tightening and the even Monmouth final poll had Northam only winning the race by +2 points lol

In the 2017 Virginia election and even recently during the California recall polls have underestimated the support for the democrats so it would not be all that surprising if this current governor's race also ends up not really be close in the end

[roxas11]

Youngkin bringing up blackface over a relatively popular governor says all you need to know about his pathetic campaign's chances with one week out.  LOL

Nothing wrong with pointing out hypocrisy. Someone truly into racial justice wouldn't be happy with terrance literally poo-pooing and shrugging away a kkk picture and blackface.

While I agree with you that Youngkin has every right to bring up the issue if he wants to. I do think that it's odd that he is doing this at this stage of the race and frankly if he was winning there is no chance that he would even have to resort to these kinds of desperate attacks in the first place


If Youngkin was winning right now there would be no need to ever bring up Ralph Northam because even if voters voter agreed with on him on the Dems hypocrisy over blackface, I still think most people do not care about this issue at all and others see it as old news that they have moved on from a long time ago

Ultimately it's simply not a good sign for Youngkin at all that he feels at this stage of the campaign that he needs to focus more on what Ralph Northam may have done 30 years ago than on actually convincing voters to support him and his policies

[roxas11]

Youngkin bringing up blackface over a relatively popular governor says all you need to know about his pathetic campaign's chances with one week out.  LOL

Nothing wrong with pointing out hypocrisy. Someone truly into racial justice wouldn't be happy with terrance literally poo-pooing and shrugging away a kkk picture and blackface.

While I agree with you that Youngkin has every right to bring up the issue if he wants to. I do think that it's odd that he is doing this at this stage of the race and frankly if he was winning there is no chance that he would even have to resort to these kinds of desperate attacks in the first place


If Youngkin was winning right now there would be no need to ever bring up Ralph Northam because even if voters voter agreed with on him on the Dems hypocrisy over blackface, I still think most people do not care about this issue at all and others see it as old news that they have moved on from a long time ago

Ultimately it's simply not a good sign for Youngkin at all that he feels at this stage of the campaign that he needs to focus more on what Ralph Northam may have done 30 years ago than on actually convincing voters to support him and his policies

Your analysis based on couple (out of hundreds) of ads? Ok. Why do you think, these are "desperate attacks"? IMO, these kinds of ads might be effective into lowering enthusiasm among some D electorate.

Those attacks come off as desperate to me because it honestly seems like Glenn Youngkin is just throwing random things against the wall in order to so what sticks. It makes me wonder if the attacks on education is as effective as Republicans have been saying because if those attacks are working, then why suddenly start talking about an old Ralph Northam controversy a week before the election

Something about that just feels off to me because if Glenn youngkin was winning I don't for 1 second think that we would be running any ads about Northam right about now

Also, as I said in my previous post I have no issue over the fact that Youngkin wants to bring this up, but I do question why he would even be talking about it this late in the race. If he wanted to make Ralph Northam an issue, then why did he not runs ads like this months ago

It makes no sense to me whatsoever that his campaign is suddenly telling voters a week before the election Hey, remember that black face controversy from 2019 lol

I also don't buy the idea that this in any way is lowering enthusiasm among the D electorate. If anything, these ads makes clear to me that youngkin has still not taken the lead in the race and terry mcauliffe still has the advantage

[roxas11]

If Youngkin was winning right now there would be no need to ever bring up Ralph Northam because even if voters voter agreed with on him on the Dems hypocrisy over blackface, I still think most people do not care about this issue at all and others see it as old news that they have moved on from a long time ago

Ultimately it's simply not a good sign for Youngkin at all that he feels at this stage of the campaign that he needs to focus more on what Ralph Northam may have done 30 years ago than on actually convincing voters to support him and his policies

First of all, the point wasn’t "bring[ing] up Ralph Northam" so much as it was reinforcing the perception of McAuliffe as a hypocrite who loves to brand himself like the reasonable adult in the room while behaving just like Trump when it comes to protecting his own party and those in his circles (the ad highlighted McAuliffe's defense of Northam, not Northam's actions). McAuliffe has consistently been tying Youngkin to the racist appeals of Trump, a supposedly 'un-scientific' approach to COVID, stolen election rhetoric, cultural extremism, etc., and what those ads do is turn the tables on him, exposing his rhetoric as hypocritical and performative. McAuliffe has been staking everything on tying Youngkin to Trump, so it’s not surprising to see Youngkin trying undermine this line of attack.

Second, you paint the impression that this "blackface" thing is somehow the dominant theme of his campaign, which it clearly isn’t. It’s not accurate to say that he isn’t "convincing voters to support him and his policies," but given how incredibly negative the McAuliffe campaign has been from day one (you could just as well spin that as a sign that McAuliffe feels like he needs the race to be nationalized to really feel good about his chances), he obviously has to counter unless you expect him to unilaterally surrender in what is a full-fledged war (especially against a professional electoral hitman like McAuliffe).

The one impression (and maybe some others will agree) I’ve gotten is that if you just observed their demeanor and didn’t know their actual party labels/positions, you’d be tempted (especially after the Trump era) to think that McAuliffe is the Republican and Youngkin the Democrat in this race. Youngkin comes across as much more level-headed, less erratic and negative, more optimistic/forward-looking, and more 'soothing' than McAuliffe. It’s quite different from the Gillespie 2017 campaign, which was arguably easier to paint as an inauthentic and transparent attempt at demagoguery designed to stir up Trumpian fears about illegals and caravans. Also, it was easier for Northam to pull off the reasonable moderate shtick when Donald Trump was actually in the White House. You can tell just how much McAuliffe/Democrats depend on Trump in this race — we’ll see how it pays off for them in states that are actually competitive in 2022.

1. McAuliffe has consistently been tying Youngkin to the racist appeals of Trump, a supposedly 'un-scientific' approach to COVID, stolen election rhetoric, cultural extremism, etc., and what those ads do is turn the tables on him, exposing his rhetoric as hypocritical and performative.

I definitely agree that McAuliffe is very much a Clinton era politician and like most politicians, he will always accuse the other side of doing the same thing that he himself does lol

Look, I can't speak for others on this, but I am under no illusion whatsoever about the type of person McAuliffe is. Frankly, I see both candidates as nothing more than politicians who will say anything in order to get elected. The only real difference as far as I'm concerned is that Youngkin seems more willing to go along with the January 6 crowd and he has already let it slip about what will happen when it comes to abortion rights if he win


2. McAuliffe has been staking everything on tying Youngkin to Trump, so it’s not surprising to see Youngkin trying undermine this line of attack.

I don't disagree with the strategy I just think he could have come up with a better way to call out McAuliffe for his many hypocrisies without randomly and suddenly putting out Ralph Northam attack ads a week before the election


3. Second, you paint the impression that this "blackface" thing is somehow the dominant theme of his campaign, which it clearly isn’t.

I never made any claims about "blackface" being the dominant issue. If anything, a big reason why I thought it was so odd that Glenn youngkin was now running ads about Ralph Northam was because it is clearly not the main issue that most voters in Virginia are focused on right now

4. The one impression (and maybe some others will agree) I’ve gotten is that if you just observed their demeanor and didn’t know their actual party labels/positions, you’d be tempted (especially after the Trump era) to think that McAuliffe is the Republican and Youngkin the Democrat in this race.

I would defiantly agree that Glenn Youngkin could have easily passed himself off as being almost like a moderate dem had he not been caught making those now infamous comments about going on the offensive against planned parenthood

5. u can tell just how much McAuliffe/Democrats depend on Trump in this race — we’ll see how it pays off for them in states that are actually competitive in 2022.

Looking at the results from Californian Trump clearly is still a factor, especially if Republican starts nominating people like Larry elders. I have no doubt that among many voters there is a legitimate fear of Trumpism. Having said that Republican can easily avoid this issue simply by nominating candidates that are more like Glenn youngkin and less like Larry elders or Marjorie Taylor Greene

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https://mobile.twitter.com/BrentScher/status/1452652366168268809

She sounds like a very impressive women and it's too bad that she is not at the top of the Republican ticket.

I could easily see someone like her giving terry mcauliffe and Dems a much tougher challenge had the Republicans actually picked her as their nominee

fortunately for the Dems republican voters would still much rather choose candidates like Larry elders or Marjorie Taylor Greene over someone like Winsome Sears

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Noted GOP activist is now just a "regular mom" in new Youngkin ad. This is just desperate.

https://twitter.com/akarl_smith/status/1452677631758016513

I have personally never been a fan of either party using these type of ads because 90 percent of the time they always end up getting a political hack to pretend to be your Average American who just happens to have concerns about the other party's candidate lol

It's nothing but pure BS and I suspect a most Americans see right though these types of ads. However, Glenn Youngkin is counting on the fact that there may be some voters out there who will fall for it. Even if that does turn out to be the case Im not convinced that there is nearly enough of those kinds of voters to give Youngkin the win

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

tell that to this guy....