The DSCC wonders (via Jim Webb's blog):
With a new poll showing the Virginia Senate race tightening, Democrats today challenged George Allen to show that he is committed to serving Virginia and urged him to cancel his weekend trip to Iowa where he is campaigning for President. The new poll comes just days after Tuesday+óGé¼Gäós Democratic Primary and shows Democrat Jim Webb cutting Allen+óGé¼Gäós lead in half.+óGé¼+ôIf George Allen spent any time in Virginia, he+óGé¼Gäód know that everyone is talking about Jim Webb. It+óGé¼Gäós time for Allen to stop playing Presidential candidate and start explaining to the people of Virginia why he+óGé¼Gäós voted with George Bush and against their interests at every turn. Is it because he+óGé¼Gäós bored and isn+óGé¼Gäót paying attention or is it because he+óGé¼Gäós out of touch? He should cancel his trip to Iowa and spend the weekend in Virginia for a change,+óGé¼-¥ said DSCC spokesman Karl Frisch.
The poll released today by Rasmussen Research shows Webb cutting Allen+óGé¼Gäós lead in half, from 20 points in April to just 10 points today +óGé¼GÇ£ well within striking distance for a campaign that is just getting underway. Webb+óGé¼Gäós strengths as a candidate combined with Allen+óGé¼Gäós record and refusal to say if he+óGé¼Gäóll serve a full six year term if re-elected have made for a potent combination.
Webb, who won the Democratic Senate primary on Tuesday, has been called George Allen+óGé¼Gäós +óGé¼+ôworst nightmare.+óGé¼-¥ Even Republican Congressman Tom Davis said Wednesday that Webb +óGé¼+ôoffers potential as a candidate with his war hero status.+óGé¼-¥ Despite these warnings, Allen continues to focus on his 2008 ambitions. This weekend he+óGé¼Gäóll again travel to Iowa where he+óGé¼Gäós slated to raise money for state Republicans in Des Moines and for his own campaign in Sioux City.
Since the beginning of the year, Allen has been a frequent visitor to the first three 2008 primary states: Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. In March alone, Allen visited New Hampshire, Iowa and South Carolina twice while also spending a weekend at the first big 2008 GOP Presidential cattle call in Memphis, Tennessee. In May, Allen did manage to stick around Virginia for at least one weekend so he could address the right-wing Council for National Policy, an extremely conservative group with national significance for GOP presidential candidates.
Allen+óGé¼Gäós forays into Presidential politics have not been without controversy. During his last trip to Iowa, Allen revealed that, apparently, he+óGé¼Gäód rather be an Iowan than a Virginian. +óGé¼+ôI just wanted to make it clear to all of you all that I wanted to be born in Iowa," Allen said.
So, Allen's worst nightmare becomes his opponent while the race tightens to within 10 points, and Allen hops on a plane to Iowa? Man, he really wants to be President Bush's heir. Sounds like for Virginians, he's already gone.
Teach this mean-spirited opportunist a thing ort two about service to his constituents. Vote Webb on Nov 7th.
I have someone spying for me in Iowa
The truly incompetent are so far detached from reality that they don't even realize their own incompetence.
http://home.att.net/~profmulder/Incompetence.htm
Incompetent People Really Have No Clue, Studies Find They're blind to own failings, others' skillsErica Goode, New York Times 1-18-2000
There are many incompetent people in the world. Dr. David A. Dunning is haunted by the fear that he might be one of them.
Dunning, a professor of psychology at Cornell, worries about this because, according to his research, most incompetent people do not know that they are incompetent.
On the contrary. People who do things badly, Dunning has found in studies conducted with a graduate student, Justin Kruger, are usually supremely confident of their abilities -- more confident, in fact, than people who do things well.
``I began to think that there were probably lots of things that I was bad at, and I didn't know it,'' Dunning said.
One reason that the ignorant also tend to be the blissfully self-assured, the researchers believe, is that the skills required for competence often are the same skills necessary to recognize competence.
The incompetent, therefore, suffer doubly, they suggested in a paper appearing in the December issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
``Not only do they reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices, but their incompetence robs them of the ability to realize it,'' wrote Kruger, now an assistant professor at the University of Illinois, and Dunning....
Emphasis mine.
Why do I bring this up? The very fact that Allen is in Iowa shows that he thinks that he is of presidential caliber, and thus doesn't even realize that even as a Senator he is in over his head.
Now some academic study itself isn't of much use in a campaign, of course. It is really just that reading this story of Allen in Iowa somehow reminded me of the study.