Never be afraid to stand with the minority when the minority is right, for the minority which is right will one day be the majority. - William Jennings Bryan

Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Dang It

Via Lowell over at Raising Kaine, we find that former Navy Secretary James Webb won't be challenging George Allen in 2006.

I just jumped on the bandwagon not too long ago, and I was really looking forward to seeing how this race would go. Now I'm afraid I know exactly where this race will go.

I don't like Harris Miller very much. I haven't seen him offer any real ideas. Matter of fact, all I've heard are very broad references to a plank on his website.

We need to "draft" somebody else. We've still got plenty of time to do it. So, my question is this; Who do we draft?
Leslie Byrne
Phillip Puckett
Chap Petersen
Gerald Baliles
Douglas Wilder (Why not? We can at least make things interesting...)

We can't just walk away from this race without a real, viable candidate. We elected a Democrat Governor in November with 52%. One of our state's most liberal (and underfunded) candidates ever got 49% against a pretty well-funded Republican. Our outgoing Governor could very well be the next President of the United States.

I'll volunteer right now to run a "Draft ---- -----" campaign, if most folks can agree on somebody, and will also agree to help me out. So the question remains, who shall it be?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Neal:
I hate to break this one to you, but Harris Miller is it!

That's all we've got.

Why do you think we were fighting so hard for Webb?

Concentrate on the coming fight over Bush's Unconstitutional Domesting Spying, or the "Virginia Unmarried Penalty" Ammendment, or the fact that the VA legislature makes no record of voice votes or floor debate.

We've got to use our energies where the fights really are.

it's been a long day.

Anonymous said...

Jim Webb is no nutjob. Only an anonymous coward would say that.

I'm willing to see what Harris Miller's got up his sleeve. He may well surprise us.

Neal said...

First, I get the feeling "anonymous" has a lat name begininning with "M" and ending with "-iller".
Or maybe not.
And Josh, that's what a draft campaign is about. Find the best candidate who hasn't expressly said no, then try and convince them to run.
We've still got til April. Let's not all just give up on giving George Allen a race just yet.
And, if we can't find anybody, I won't be behind Harris Miller if he's the nominee. We'll leave it at that.

Neal said...

Also, I deleted "anonymous"'s comment. We don't use potty mouth words here...

Anonymous said...

Neal-

Give Harris Miller a chance -- the guy's been in the race for just a few weeks, he hasn't gotten out there yet. So why have you prejudged him in such a rash manner?

Seriously, give it time. I could see if the guy had a track record of bashing Democrats, why you'd be mad, but the guy's been a candidate for a matter of days, not months or years. Cool down, take a step back, and make a reasoned judgment when you see more.

Also, I'm not sure why you think that Leslie Byrne (who couldn't win with Kaine's coattails against the most crazy conservative candidate they put up) would be more electable than a moderate, high-tech businessman from Northern Virginia. I think I remember people making that argument when she ran against Mark Warner in 1996.

Anonymous said...

...thus proving my point that Republicans win because they stick together.

Again, I suggest you try doing some research beyond blogs and Wikipedia. Literally five minutes on LexisNexis should be more than enough to silence the most ardent Webbhead.

Anonymous said...

The "deciding issue" in the 2006 Virginia Senate Election will be the Virginia amendment prohibiting same-sex marriage. This will provide huge turnout of Republicans/Conservatives who will vote Republican while at the polls. Sort of like the way this issue undoubtedly helped President Bush in 2004 in some strategic states.

Up against this, any Democrat will have a hard time winning if Allen associates himself with the amendment. I think this may also come into play for other elections like U.S. House in Virginia. Maybe even here in the 9th District if Carrico (should he get the nomination) uses it.