Back earlier in the year there were those among Hillary supporters how scoffed at the idea that Barack Obama could carry Virginia - I have a $100 bet with a contributor to Pam's House Blend even though Virginia elected a black governor close to two decades ago. Now, polls are showing that Obama is leading McCain in Virginia. This has got to have the GOP terrified despite whatever spin that may be put out. The fact that it looks like Mark Warner will beat Jim Gilmore by a landslide in the race to replace retiring U.S. Senator John Warner will only make it all worse. Virginia is changing, albeit not quickly enough for my tastes, and the far right reactionaries are slowly becoming out numbered by the progressive votes of Northern Virginia and the older cities (Virginia Beach and particularly Chesapeake remain bastions of wing nut thinking). Here are some highlights from the Virginian Pilot:Democrat Barack Obama has opened a solid lead over Republican John McCain in Virginia, a state that last backed a Democrat for president in 1964, according to a poll published Wednesday. A CNN-Time poll of 684 likely Virginia voters conducted Sunday through Tuesday shows 53 percent of those surveyed backed Obama while 44 percent backed McCain. The head-to-head results are comfortably outside the poll's sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points in the race for the 13 electoral votes that the GOP has owned for 40 years.
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While the poll was heartening to Obama supporters in Virginia, one prominent backer was skeptical as a result of personal experience. "I hope this isn't deja vu all over again," said former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder. "I'd take it with a grain of salt." In 1989, Wilder became the nation's first elected black governor by only one-tenth of a percentage point over a white opponent despite polls that indicated he would win easily, as his two white Democratic ticket mates did.
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Wilder said race is not nearly the factor it was in his election, but cautioned Obama - who would be the first black president - against accepting so wide a poll advantage at face value. "I would advise him not to be swayed one way or another by these polls except to say that we have to work harder," said Wilder, who is retiring after one term as Richmond's mayor.
1 comment:
With the recent overnight polls showing Obama pulling ahead in the "battleground states" (including Virginia) I think every one of us needs to be vigilant about voter disenfranchisement, voting machine "errors", screwed up counts (as happened here in DC during the primary) and all other such problems and shenanigans that we were witness to in recnet Presidential elections. I predict that there will be significant problems with vote counts particularly in the swing states.
And should it come to the "Florida" scenario once again, we all need to hit the streets this time and not let the Supreme Court determine the outcome.
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