Roanoke Times: Deeds and McAuliffe Shouldn't Have Criticized Huckabee Remarks?

I thought this editorial made perfect sense - blasting Mike Huckabee for his divisive, nasty remarks about voter suppression and northern Virginia - until its conclusion. Then, it goes off into la-la land, actually criticizing Terry McAuliffe and Creigh Deeds for...that's right, for doing what the Roanoke Times just did, blasting Mike Huckabee for his remarks and wondering why Bob McDonnell didn't dump the dude.

McDonnell could have dropped his guest at the state line and tried to refocus on the real issues in Virginia, but Democratic candidates could not resist attacking. Former Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe, who now seeks his party's gubernatorial nomination, overreacted to Huckabee's statements, earning them much wider play than they warranted.

Democratic candidate Sen. Creigh Deeds also jumped on the bandwagon.

The campaigns owe Virginians an apology for derailing what had been shaping up into a substantive governor's race.

Oh absolutely, the condemnations of Huckabee by several Democratic candidates (Jon Bowerbank weighed in as well, not to mention Dickie Cranwell and the Democratic Party of Virginia) totally derailed this campaign, which had been 100% focused on the serious issues previously but now never will be again. Hahahahahahaha.

P.S. Actually, an interesting question here might be why the Deeds and McAuliffe campaigns (and the DPVA and Jon Bowerbank) condemned Huckabee and McDonnell, while several other campaigns (e.g., Brian Moran's) chose not to do so.