Beyer is for the most part a 'new Democrat' -- a moderate Democrat many believe is fairly conservative on fiscal issues. Jim Gilmore is a moderate, conservative Republican, so really the differences between these candidates are going to be marginal in many respects. |
He doesn't want to fight battles unnecessarily and create a distance between himself and his party. |
I remember the conference director said words to the effect that Robertson is one more nutty comment away from becoming irrelevant. Since then, Robertson has made a number of such comments--on China's one-child policy, about wishing for a nuke to take out the State Department building in D.C., among others. It's as though he can't help himself. Oftentimes his comments anger his own supporters the most. |
I think Tom Davis is about as safe as an incumbent can be these days. Davis strikes a pretty good middle ground for his constituents. |
If the war continues to go badly in Iraq, and people become more anxious about the economy, and they perceive that there have been a number of significant setbacks in the Bush administration recently, public opinion is going to continue to move much more in the direction of those who have been opposed to the president from the beginning. |
It doesn't take much to read between the lines that fear of fallout from a horrific attack is a part of his calculation, ... Understandably, many of us near D.C. find such talk chilling, but he probably has access to intelligence that suggests this should be a real concern. |
It was almost like he was putting his name on the ballot next to Kilgore and giving people a chance to have a referendum on his presidency. It was really bad timing for Jerry Kilgore that this election coincided exactly with the low point of the Bush presidency. |
It will be talked about in the campaign -- an opponent would be foolish not to bring it up -- but I don't think it's enough to put a strong incumbent in the 'vulnerable' category. |
It's clearly a damage-control effort. |
It's just that Robertson--given some of what he has said in the past--doesn't help to promote that discussion, |
It's not the amount. It's the fact that person has crossed over the line and publicly become associated with the interests of one political party over the other. That's the rub. |
Much like the Democrats had to rethink their dwindling status when they were running on gun control and abortion every election, you can't just appeal to the core of your electorate. |
That could hurt Gilmore, ... given the fact there is a majority of women voters in this state, a little bit higher than the norm throughout the country. |
That mixes it up even more, |
The Bush-hating phenomenon was not so important until the president's popularity more generally started to decline - at which point the voices of Bush's strongest opponents take on much more importance, because much of public opinion is beginning to dovetail with the views of those who haven't liked Bush from the beginning. |