Never thought you'd see this one, eh?
Never thought you'd see this one, eh?
How many of those on stage will serve in Washington next year? Any predictions?
Also, Miller and Webb are bigger men than a lot of their followers (including me). They put many of us to shame with their (positive) actions after the primary.
Also, according to Whitley, "appeared to be more unified by opposition to the two Republican Georges Bush and Allen -- than by the candidate himself." That's a strange, barbed comment by the Republican...er, Richmond Times-Dispatch reporter, and somehow I strongly doubt it. Can someone who was there confirm or deny Whitley's assertion?
150 sounds about right to me.
Wikipedia says:
"Times-Dispatch editors tend to be politically conservative, leading the paper to frequently endorse candidates of the Republican Party. It tends to use more conservative syndicated columnists, and supports many of George W. Bush's policies, including the 2003 invasion of Iraq and a flat income tax."
Webb fans, don't expect to get a fair shake at this paper. Get your letters to the editor ready to send off quickly!
Seems like it was a great day to be a Democrat in Virginia. Let me hear about it.
Most of the speeches advocated party unity and success in the fall ... most all underscored / ended with delight in Jim Webb taking it to Allen. Harris Miller was gracious, covered a lot of ground in his longish speech.
Jim Webb's speech had it's core elements in it .... which I'm coming to find out are more and more drawn from Born Fighting.... his father and family. This isn't too surprising other than to say as I finish reading his book all the themes there in keep popping up in the speeches. Hey no shit Tony ... the campaign isn't called "Born Fighting" for nothing.
When people ask (jilted republicans) why is Jim Webb running as a democrat?? Just read the later half of Born Fighting ... it's all about Jim's family hertitage ... his grandfather .. his father ... his family's working class southern roots. You read that and it should be crystal clear.
What I appreciate in all of Jim's speeches is his personal touch of talking about the volunteers and grassroots. I think this makes it very special for him and again it resonates with the themes in Born Fighting. For the tough guy that he is ... Jim is a romantic as much as he is authentic. We couldn't have a better candidate for public office.
There's a 2-day wine festival here in Nelson, and on the way to Cville we were surprised to see the area has many Allen signs. Al Weed went down after the Unity Rally and I think he will be there tomorrow as well. He also made it to the Strawberry Festival in Fluvanna between the central committee meeting and the rally.
Several speakers at the rally - Dickie Cranwell was great! Creigh Deeds was very fired up, Mitch spoke as well. Harris Miller spoke better than ever. Jim Webb talked about his father perseverance in getting an college education and that he was the first in the family to go beyond the eighth grade. This story really resonates with me since I have many friends who did not graduate from high school in the usual way, though some did get GEDs later on.
We did get to see Phriendlyjaime, Thaddeus Toad, JC and Greg Kane. I believe they were all there early to help set up. JC radiates heat and I believe he is the primary cause of global warming. And I saw Mark from Cumberland, but unfortunately didn't get a chance to talk with him.
I spent most of my time catching up with Nelson Dems who don't blog. One graciously gave his seat to an older Webb supporter and we really enjoyed talking with her, too.
Has anyone ever written on the concept of community in John Irving's novels? Because next we went to a very fun party featuring the best food ever. The t-shirt helps because it leads to conversation.
Taking a jab at Sen. George Allen’s penchant for tossing a football in public - Allen’s father was a famous NFL coach - Democratic challenger James Webb reached into a bag at a campaign rally Saturday and pulled out a nuclear missile, which his father helped develop.
“I don’t know how many of you feel safer because the Redskins won a football game,†he said, hefting the 2-foot model aloft.
BY TYLER WHITLEY
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
CHARLOTTESVILLE -- After a bruising primary, Virginia Democrats held a unity rally in this Democratic stronghold yesterday.
The Democratic Senate candidate, Jim Webb, said he wanted to "fundamentally change the way that power functions in our government."
Not only did it contribute to our early development of the ICBM component of the nuclear deterrent triad (land based missiles, submarine baed missiles, and bombers), but it also was the primary launch vehicle for the early generation of spy satellites -- the Corona program, which gave us a much better ability to see what was going on inside the Soviet Union.
Later, the Atlas vehicle was developed into several commercial versions by General Dynamics (later Lockheed-Martin) and used to launch a large number of communications satellites -- and my Dad ended up working for them after retiring from the Air Force.
I still look forward to meeting everyone soon!
A good time was had by all.
Certainly the weather, time of day, etc played into it, but many of the Democratic Party members who attended the Central Committee earlier in the day were not at the afternoon rally.
We should take this as an indication that more work must be done to make sure all Democrats feel welcome and are supportive of the Webb campaign. At the Democratic meeting, downstate Democrats whispered that Webb ignored them in the primary. Many mainstream party members said they still feel ostracized and lack any strong connection or relationship with the candidate or the people working in the Webb campaign.
I also think we all know that the the black community is seriously estranged from the Webb campaign at this point and the campaign must provide more than lip service to that community if Jim Webb is going to win their trust.
Viginia Democratic Chair Dick Cranwell, a former Miller supporter, certainly thinks more must be done to bring everyone together. At least twice, he urged the Democrats at the party meeting to get over their concerns and get behind Webb.
Webb's speaking style is better these days. For the first time, he was more inclusive, noting that he wants all Democrats united behind him, but he continued to throw most of the bones at his primary supporters and Reagan Democrats.
All of us must be conscious of the sensitivities that still exist. All Democrats are united against Allen. But we must continue to work our hardest to make sure they are also united behind Webb and will do more than just vote for him.
Regardless of what happened in the primary, Webb won and he deserves our support.
Webb was on the money, and that was one thing the Dems did not ask for, contributions. I hope folks begin to see that Allen's machine is well financed. I believe Webb stated we don't have the money as a party but we certainly have the volunteers. I think he is right.
The weather held up, heard from some volunteers that they would not go down if the weather was "it will rain", but well, I went anyway from Arlington, and it was fine. Did not rain in fact until wee hours Sunday morning.
The highlight was Webb holding up the missile. What a neat effect. Webb did make a Freudian slip and called Allen's campaign director "Bottoms" instead of Wadhams and the crowd chuckled.
I think seeing all of our party together and holding hands and having a focus was a moving experience. Webb was very relaxed as he mingled with the crowd. Good to see Jim having a good time. Sue Langley and Chris Ambrose made it down for this event; wish we had name tags so I could spot all you RaisingKaine/ Webby folks.
Met a lot of Miller folks too, and we all went to the icecream shop around the corner after the event. Harris Miller came inside later and I went up to him and shook his hand and told him I liked his speech (it was rather good). Feder also came in and well, it was a Dem Parlor before you knew it. Pictures on Nova4Webb. kc.