President Obama wraps up his three-day bus tour of North Carolina and Virginia on Wednesday, a jaunt designed to sell his $447 billion jobs bill to voters in two swing states he wrested from the GOP in 2008. The trip’s route has been telling. Repeating his victories in these pivotal Southern battlegrounds will be a challenge for Obama. …
virginia
In A Boost For George Allen, Sen. Jim Webb Will Not Run Again
Former Virginia Governor and Senator George Allen, a Republican, is now the clear front runner to reclaim his seat in the U.S. Senate in 2012. His onetime rival, Democrat Jim Webb, has decided not to seek reelection, which will force Virginia Democrats to begin casting around for a replacement candidate. The obvious choice is Tim Kaine, …
UPDATE: About That Individual Mandate Lawsuit…
How much confidence does the lead filer of the lawsuit against the individual mandate have that it will prevail? Virginia, whose attorney general and governor are leading the charge, at the same time is taking definitive steps to make sure that federal health reform is implemented effectively within it’s borders.
Yesterday, Gov. Bob …
Welcome Back, Pragmatism
People are unhappy. They’ve been unhappy for a while: through Enron and the .com bubble bursting, 9/11, two wars, Katrina. They thought Barack Obama would bring change but few have felt the changes he’s wrought: who can imagine how bad the economy could have gotten sans stimulus? It feels bad enough as it is. Then came the Gulf oil …
Virginia: Where History is Politics
UPDATED. See additions after the jump.
Having grown up in the Commonwealth, I’m no stranger to the tensions that inevitably lie at the intersection of Southern history and Southern politics. Back in the 1980s and ’90s, Virginia had a very awkward thing called Lee-Jackson-King Day. Believe it or not, the government decided it would be …
A Dispatch From Virginia’s Fightin’ Fifth
Our colleague Alex Altman files this story from the Commonwealth. Freshman Democrat Tom Perriello, a loyal party warrior who stuck his neck out on health reform, cap-and-trade, etc. despite the deep purples and reds of his district, faces an uphill re-election battle. With the GOP eager to capitalize, a crowded field and Tea Party …
Bob McDonnell – Guinea Pig?
Voting has begun in Virginia and Democrat Creigh Deeds enters today a severe underdog – trailing by 13.4 percentage points, according to the latest realclearpolitics average of Virginia polls.
While much has been made of the GOP divisions in the NY23rd race, Virginia is shaping up to be their best hope for a recipe for success. …