I've got a number of thoughts on this subject, but I'll save them until after the election (if ever). Meanwhile, the debate has broken out thanks to a
NY Times story by Adam Nagourney (who appears to be utterly fascinated - obsessed? - with T-Mac, by the way):
When State Senator R. Creigh Deeds defeated Terry McAuliffe, the former Democratic Party chairman and confidante of Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton, to be the Democratic nominee for governor of Virginia, the argument among many Democrats was that Mr. Deeds — an easy-going, moderate Democrat from rural Virginia — would be the stronger candidate in a general election.
But with this closely-watched election less than a month away, and Mr. Deeds struggling against Robert McDonnell, the Republican former attorney general, it is hard not to forgive some Virginia Democrats for thinking that they might have been better off with Mr. McAuliffe at the top of the ticket....
[...]
“I don’t think there’s any doubt that in terms of campaign skills and ability to go toe-to-toe — both with McDonnell and national Republicans who have spent considerable resources on this race — McAuliffe has more experience and more skills,” said Robert D. Holsworth, a Virginia political analyst. “McAuliffe always had the big advantages and big liabilities. But those advantages would have been considerable in the race that this turned out to be.”
Nagourney's article is now the topic of discussion over at
NLS, at
Blue Commonwealth, at
True/Slant, at
Huffington Post, etc. Meanwhile, over at
MyDD, former Moran campaign netroots guru Jerome Armstrong writes:
It is still baffling that Deeds wound up with the nomination. Moran was the only candidate who showed he understood that we would be in a battle for the GE, and the only candidate that was able to tear apart McAuliffe. For that preview of what he would have done to McDonnell, he was labeled as "too negative" and NoVA progressives opted for the "nice guy" conservative Democrat instead. The Deeds apologists will tell you that anyone would have been down like this, but that's just nonsense.
Feel free to use this as an open thread to chime in.
