As the 2005 Virginia campaign season winds down, we sometimes find ourselves wondering if anyone is paying attention. In addition, we frequently find ourselves questioning the reporting by the "mainstream media," which seems at times to be playing the "shield Jerry" game rather than doing their jobs as reporters. But now, the Media General-owned Richmond Times Dispatch, not exactly a liberal rag, has come up with an excellent article by Jeff Schapiro on the remarkable debate debacle Kilgore suffered at the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce last week.Mr. Shapiro's excellent article about "Kilgore's flameout" in the debate is, frankly, the most honest evaluation I've read so far about the debate. The article points out that "politics is a cynical business," and provides an excellent example; namely, that Jerry's handlers believe his debate flameout can be overridden by slick television commercials portraying their man as everything he wasn't at the debate. And, for that matter, everything he isn't in real life. In other words, having effectively blacked out the debate in most of Virginia, the Kilgore side is flooding the state with "Jerry as a leader" blarney in carefully scripted scenarios.
In doing this, of course, the Kilgore campaign has inadvertantly revealed what it really thinks of Jerry's dismal leadership performance. Think about it: can you imagine what the Kilgore TV ads would look like if there had been ANY decent sound bites in Jerry's favor? Instead, what we got at the debate was a good look at what happens when Jerry has to deviate from his careful script and try to think on his feet.
For instance, when asked which type of leadership style he followed, that of George W. Bush or Mark Warner, Jerry was completely flustered. Not surprisingly, he tried to have it both ways ("I'm both") before emphasizing that he was really a Bush man. (Kaine, by the way, had no hesitation: "Mark Warner for me, and I'll continue his policies"). Well, after the dismal response to Hurricane Katrina by President Bush and the cronies he appointed to FEMA, Mr. Kilgore's claim to be "like Bush" as a leader paints us a disturbing picture of exactly how Jerry would function as Virginia's chief executive. Let's see: slow to react (would Jerry have held a refendum on how to respond to the hurricane?); quick to pander to special interests and big campaign contributors (some sort of no-bid contracts for, say, coal mine operators, big drug companies, or Smithfield Foods illegal immigrant...er, meat packers?); generous dollops of money to selected religious charities at the exclusion of the public good? That's certainly how George W. Bush, Jerry's model for leadership, acts as President.
The important point is that we are selecting Virginia's leader here, and this will determine what path Virginia follows for us and our children. The question is whether we will continue on the Warner-Kaine path that turned Virginia from a financial disaster into the best managed state in the nation, or will we sink into the slime pit? Mr. Shapiro's last comment says it all: "Who holds the cue cards if Kilgore becomes governor?" And what if nobody does at all?