The crack reporting team at the Washington Post, having conducted a multi-week effort to make Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell’s 20-year-old thesis a major campaign issue (actually, to make it the entire campaign), is plainly miffed. He’s not taking the bait and is essentially ignoring the Post‘s made-up scandal. Doesn’t he know how vital it is? Naturally, the Post has no choice but to run a story on McDonnell’s ignoring the Post’s coverage. No, really. The Post explains:
Two weeks ago, after McDonnell’s 20-year-old graduate thesis surfaced, he was forced to respond to the firestorm that his past views on working women, feminists and homosexuals created—but only briefly. He held a conference call with reporters to answer questions and then insisted, despite continued attacks by Deeds, that he had moved on. “He’s talking about former presidents and former governors and divisive social issues,” McDonnell said. “He’s talking about things people don’t care about. So why would I engage him?”
Where exactly was the “firestorm”? Why, on the pages of the Post, you see. Unfortunately for the Post, McDonnell isn’t playing along:
Each time Deeds attacks, McDonnell criticizes Deeds’s actions and sidesteps those issues as he tries to stay above the fray and focus solely on jobs, the economy and a handful of federal measures. McDonnell’s strategy has proven difficult the past two weeks after the release of the thesis, but the campaign insists it’s the right one.
Jerry W. Kilgore, former attorney general and the GOP nominee for governor in 2005, said Republicans have advised McDonnell to avoid a natural inclination to respond to the attacks and instead remain disciplined in his message. Getting bogged down on abortion and other social issues would only make him vulnerable, Republicans say.
And of course McDonnell has one advantage (aside from his opponent’s failure to come up with distinct policy positions and no evidence the voters care about a two-decades-old term paper): the mood these days, especially in Virginia, is not favorable to Democrats. So McDonnell would just as soon focus on issues and liberal Democrats’ overreach.
That leaves only one option for the Post. Tomorrow’s headline must certainly be: “McDonnell Still Ignoring Post’s Thesis Story.”
