Move along, nothing to see here…

Pardon me while I gloat. I know that when Republicans win an election we are supposed to apologize to Democrats for interrupting the march toward a bright and glorious future, but I can’t help myself.

Tuesday’s election results were the perfect outcome. Republican wins in the governor’s race in Virginia and New Jersey put Blue Dog Dems on notice that the natives are restless and the loss in New York lets the White House continue to delude themselves that they just need to keep on, keepin’ on.

What a welcome change to vote for a candidate who wins big. After writing in Tom Tancredo and Sarah Palin during the last two presidential elections, checking the box for Bob McDonnell for governor of Virginia finally put me on the winning side.

And for once, I’m not alone. Polling showed that 41 percent of McDonnell voters were “very enthusiastic” about his candidacy. In contrast with 2008 surveys that showed the choice between voting for John McCain and volunteering for a clinical study of dysentery drugs was a toss–up for conservative Republicans.

Initially I thought Republicans wouldn’t get to enjoy the victory for long. White House blame shifters already tossed Deeds under the bus last week, claiming his failure to fully embrace Obama caused his defeat.

Instead Obama’s busy spinmeisters began peddling the story to a credulous mainstream media that the only off–year election that really counts is in New Jersey where Gov. Jon Corzine did everything but offer to invest Obama’s Nobel winnings on Wall Street.

Oops, in another example of Obama Administration acumen the Dems managed to lose New Jersey, too! Of course the Washington Post assures us there’s nothing to see here, in fact one headline reads “No Referendum on Obama,” but in both states voters who in fact used the election as a referendum on Obama voted against him.

That’s what makes the New Jersey loss so telling. Democrat registration there outnumbers Republican 34 percent to 20 percent, the legislature is overwhelmingly Democrat, all statewide officials are Democrats, the Congressional delegation is Democrat, the incumbent governor is a Democrat enjoying all the advantages of incumbency, Obama carried the state by 57 percent, the Republican candidate is fat and has a lousy jump shot. Yet he still won by five points!

When Barack puts the full Obama on the voters and his man still loses in an overwhelmingly Democrat state, it’s time to start drawing up a seating chart for the lifeboats.

Wouldn’t you like to be a Democrat incumbent on Wednesday morning knowing your political fate was in the hands of the Three Stooges: Obama, Pelosi & Reid?

Meanwhile, Creigh Deeds the Democrat candidate for governor in VA must feel like a Washington Post “Date Lab” loser who tries everything — runs on the thesis, pledges to raise taxes — and still gets a fake phone number at the end of the evening.

‘Country’ Creigh Deeds just didn’t fit in with those Post metrosexuals no matter how hard he tried. When the Posties made an in–kind campaign contribution with the McDonnell Thesis (a 20–year–old term paper that rivaled the Da Vinci Code for popularity among political archeologists but failed to strike a nerve among actual voters) Deeds took the hint and ran with it. And ran. And ran. And ran it into the ground. The Post finally said McDonnell benefitted from a “lackluster Democratic opponent.” Ouch!

It is a strange election in Virginia when the Democrat runs on social issues. Usually a Democrat will appeal to his party’s base during the primary, shaking hands at abortion mills and hitting the gay bars; then move toward the middle during the general election.

Creigh Deeds did just the opposite. He wins the primary as the moderate and then boards the Wayback machine and sets the destination for 1989.

Deeds talked so much about abortion that I thought Planned Parenthood sponsored his campaign. And I could have sworn I got a robo–call Sunday from Anita Hill.

Talk about going back to the failed policies of the past. The only retro social issues event that Deeds left out was a bra burning.

The Postie political staff is of course appalled by the prospect of a McDonnell victory and has spent the fall warning Virginia voters that if elected McDonnell will govern as a conservative. To which I say, thank God.

McDonnell didn’t have to talk about “hot–button” issues because his record over the years proved the Republican base could trust him. McCain, on the other hand, had a real one–two punch: the base didn’t trust him and the independents thought he was erratic.

It will be comforting next year for VA residents to have a first lady in Richmond with the same last name as the first man. When a married Democrat politician appears in a photo clutching a woman with a different last name it just means the first couple has a “modern marriage” so get used to it. When a Republican appears in the same type of photo, it usually means marital difficulties.

Michael R. Shannon is a public relations and advertising consultant with corporate, government and political experience around the globe. He is a dynamic and entertaining keynote speaker. He can be reached at michael-shannon@comcast.net.

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