There's a new poll by Daily Kos/Research 2000 on the Virginia governor's race. I had a few thoughts on it, but then I read what Teacherken had to say and he pretty much summed it up. Key points:1. "There is no significant difference in net favorables among the three Democrats, all of whom badly trail McDonnell in that regard..."
2. Among Democrats, once again, there is "no really significant difference among the 3 Dems, with Deeds again having the highest net favorable."
3. The "only real takeaway" from this poll: "all of the Dems have real work to do against McDonnell...there are positives that each candidate can take away, and a hell of a lot of work for the Democratic party between now and November."
In sum, the three Democratic candidates all have similar "favorable" ratings, and all trail Bob McDonnell (Moran by 1 point in this poll, Deeds and McAuliffe by 7 points each). What boggles my mind is that Bob McDonnell, who most activist Democrats believe to be a right-wing extremist, has a +17 favorable rating, including +57 among Republicans and +17 among Independents. Even 32% of Democrats view McDonnell favorably, a number I find truly disturbing.
Again, we really have our work cut out for us this year, especially considering that Republicans appear to be more energized than Democrats. Sorry not to be more encouraging, but as far as I'm concerned, these poll results suck unless you find the prospect of Governor McDonnell appealing...
