Well, this pretty much sums it up: when Tim Kaine goes to the NASCAR races, he actually does something; when Jerry Kilgore goes, he gets to be"Grand Marshall." Specifically, at the NASCAR Chevy American Revolution 400 this weekend, Tim Kaine proposed bringing the NASCAR Hall of Fame to Richmond, where '"professional racing began in Richmond in 1946, two years before NASCAR was formed." Now, Kaine's helping with the Virginians Racing for the Hall of Fame petition drive to do just that -- to bring the NASCAR Hall of Fame to our state capital.
And Jerry Kilgore, well, he did get to say "Gentlemen, start your engines" at the Food City race, and that's really cool. But what else has he done for NASCAR -- or, more importantly, for Virginia? Uh, uh, uh, I'm thinking...help me out here!
In a nutshell, there's the difference between Tim Kaine and Jerry Kilgore. Kaine gets things done for Virginia and for the Virgnians. Kilgore talks a lot (when he's not hiding out, that is), but besides that, he's "all hat and no cattle" as the saying goes (or, as another saying goes, "that [Kilgore] dog don't hunt"). If the Kaine vs. Kilgore approaches to NASCAR tell us anything, it is that Tim Kaine's going to win a lot more races and get a lot more done for Virginia than Jerry Kilgore ever does. Now who would you rather have driving your car?
PS By the way, the driver who won the Richmond race this weekend was Kasey Kahne -- last name pronounced "Kaine." Symbolism?