I'm Back! Yay! Okay, Anyway...

I'm back from my little post-primary vacation, did you miss me?

Anyway, Jim Webb is working hard now to be elected our next senator. I have full confidence in him and his campaigning abilities, but I have serious reservations about his staff. They couldn't really combat Harris Miller's attacks, and just got over the finish line by the seats of their pants. Harris Miller ran a good campaign, and his attack ads were second to none. Except, that is, second to what we'll see from George Allen's attack machine.

Dick Wadhams is an even better dirty campaigner than Scott Howell was, and he'll do everything he can to beat Jim Webb.

Everybody is saying, "Oh, you can't swift-boat Jim Webb. He's a hero." Well, yes, but does that matter? Not really. Once it's out in the media, no amount of the Webb folks calling for retractions or apologies will get it out of the swing voters' heads. We need to take the campaign to George Allen. We need to hit him from every possible angle. Get Mark Warner back from Iowa and New Hampshire for a couple weeks around, say, late October, to barnstorm Southwest Virginia for Webb. Get Tim Kaine on the campaign trail this summer in Northern Virginia swing areas like Loudon and Prince William Counties. See if Doug Wilder will speak for Webb in the black neighborhoods. And, while all of that is going on, get Jim Webb into every big city, midsized town, and rural wide spot in the road that his schedules can.

Like Webb and Mudcat Saunders have both said, this race will be won in the 6th, 5th, and 9th districts. Well, let's get Webb out of Fairfax and Alexandria and down here. Sure, it's fun to campaign in areas where you'll get 500 people screaming for you in the streets, but they're already voting for you. Go to the places where people don't know your name, and are impressionable. Don't preach to the choir, they're already saved.

So, in closing, I hope to get to meet and talk to Jim Webb soon. I hope to see him here, in Southwest Virginia, preaching to the people who aren't in the choir just yet.

-Neal

(I'll try to write something Tuesday--tomorrow I have to be up at the high school to pick up our [ridiculously late] yearbooks.)