Teacherken on Moran Supporters: "You are freaked"

As usual, "Teacherken" (aka, Ken Bernstein) has written a superb analysis, this time of the reason why supporters of Brian Moran are lashing out so hard against fellow Democrat Terry McAuliffe. I thought this was worth reprinting here, in full (it's addressed to a leading Moran netroots supporter).

[N]ow you have expressed the truth...you are freaked. Let's be honest. A lot of Brian's supporters looked at a Moran v Deeds primary and were more than quietly confident, given the distribution of votes in a statewide Democratic primary. But Terry upsets that applecart. Because of his ability to raise money, because he has access to support of the Clinton network, including possibly bringing in the former president, you all got worried, not able to figure out how it might play out. You resented him raining on your parade.

Which was stupid. There was no reason for Brian and his campaign to go so negative, for his supporters to resort to slash and burn. In the process you have actually raised Terry's credibility to possible primary voters. Remember, we are an open primary, and the kind of negativity turns off independents, who now might decide to turn out in the primary to punish your guy.

Let's be honest. No one is quite sure how a contested primary for governor will play out, because we have not had won for more than two decades. That makes people antsy.

I think Brian made an error at Jeff-Jack with his closing remarks. I talked with people who were uncommitted and few of Brian's supporters who were unconfortable with it.

And I am going to suggest the following - y'll keep bashing Terry for various things and you might force Tim Kaine, who now is neutral and undecided but who benefited from a lot of money that Terry raised, to come down and if not endorse Terry to validate him as legitimate. Do you really want to see that happen?

Terry can be difficult. He is at a point in his life where he wants to give back, to serve. Hell,he does not need a position and he sure as hell does not need money. He thought he was going to wind up as Secretary of Commerce [under] President Hillary Clinton. That turned out not to be in the cards. So he searched around for some other avenue, and as a long-time resident of Virginia, said why not to a shot at governor.

The more you focus negatively on Terry the more you elevate his stature. To me it is stupid politically.

Meanwhile, Terry continues to run a positive campaign, lay out his "business plan" for Virginia, and win over supporters. In other words, what campaigns are really supposed to be about.

UPDATE: Also, this is a must read, particularly for the Moran campaign, at which it is clearly directed (three paragraphs earlier, Ken mentions "the negative and over the top words and actions from Brian's campaign"). It concludes as follows:

...in case anyone from the campaigns is reading this, let me also note this - the kind of campaign a candidate runs is some evidence of what kind of governor the person would be. And if I find a campaign unacceptable, then I am likely to conclude that the candidate is responsible. i regrettably reached that conclusions with the Clinton campaign last year - Bob Kerry, Bob Johnson, even the candidate herself with "he has a speech" remarks. I am hoping that the kinds of things that are disturbing me now do not continue to the point where I have to conclude that I must regretfully decide that I cannot support the campaign of someone I like and consider a friend.

Hmmmm.