Last Wednesday, General Wesley Clark joined Tim Kaine in Norfolk. There were two events, the first a rally that introduced the Veterans for Kaine Committee, and then a fundraising luncheon in which Clark and Kaine each addressed a crowd of about 175. At the luncheon, General Clark spoke for about half an hour. Most of what he had to say was about the general state of the Democratic Party and what needs to be done to improve our election results. Clark concluded by strongly endorsing Tim Kaine, emphasizing that Kaine truly speaks to the values of what it means to be a Democrat and is the perfect candidate to be running in Virginia this year.
More generally, Clark warned that even with the perfect storm brewing (Iraq, gas prices, lack of leadership, criminal indictments, lack of disaster relief, cronyism) for massive Republican losses, this is not enough to ensure Democratic victories. While we watch the Republicans collapse, we Democrats also need strong candidates with a powerful and positive message. General Clark definitely felt that Tim Kaine displays these characteristics.
Clark used a great analogy to distinguish between Republican leadership and Democratic leadership. He said that Republican leadership represents the values of the "Gordon Gekko" character in the movie "Wall Street." Greed is good. Democrats, in contrast, represent the values of the common good. Clark added that Republicans have done a great job with brand imaging over the years, labeling Democrats as "liberals," and liberals as bad people who will just raise your taxes.
Clark talked about how we Democrats need to rebrand ourselves and speak about our values: freedom, opportunity, patriotism, faith, and community. As an example, Clark asked everyone in the room who had served their country to raise their hand, and 40-50% of the people in the room did so. Clark said you would never find that level of service at a Republican fundraiser, and that this speaks to two different value sets.
Clark stressed that we are the party of faith, we are the ones who institute the teachings of the Bible through our policies and heed the words "love thy neighbor as thyself." Clark again asked for everyone to raise their hands, this time for anyone who had some sort of spirituality, and over 90% of the people raised their hands.
Clark concluded by arguing that Tim Kaine is the right guy at the right time to promote the Democratic message.
Tim Kaine's speech was equally compelling. Kaine directly and strongly countered Jerry Kilgore's distortion of Kaine's record as Mayor of Richmond. Kaine ticked off his successes: 76,000 new jobs created, Richmond named as one of the top ten cities in the U.S. for business, the city's homicide rate dropping by 53%, and new schools being built in a city that hadn't seen any new schools in a generation.
Kaine then proceeded to tout the successes of the last four years. Reminding the crowd that when Mark Warner and he took office in 2001, the state had the worst revenue in a generation, a struggling economy, and a bitter partisanship divide. As they say, the rest is history. Virginia now has the third lowest unemployment rate in the nation (in a struggling national economy!), has made major investments in education and healthcare, and has begun to turn around a dilapidated VDOT to the point where the majority of projects now come in on time and on budget. And to top it all off, Virginia was named the best managed state in the nation by Governing Magazine. Not bad!
Kaine emphasized that Hurricanes Katrina and Rita have forcefully reminded us that management style is more than just bookkeeping; it's a matter of life and death that involves appointing competent people to critical positions. It involves having a strong infrastructure in place, and it involves having a plan.
Kaine concluded with the two main reasons he is running for Governor. First, he is fulfilling a lesson he learned early in life, which was to measure life by the difference you can make in other peoples' lives. And Kaine has done just that, through civic organizations, church and politics and soon as our Governor. Second, Kaine added that he has worked too hard over the past 4 years to turn the keys over to Jerry Kilgore, the guy who has worked against this progress every step of the way. Kaine related how Kilgore brags about wanting to "undo the damage of the last 4 years." Kaine concluded that if Kilgore doesn't know success when it is looking him in the face, he surely isn't fit to be Governor.