Dear Moderates: The Left Isn't Why McAuliffe Lost Virginia

[babylonsister]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/dear-moderates-the-left-isnt-why-terry-mcauliffe-lost-the-virginia-gubernatorial-race-to-glenn-youngkin?ref=home


Dear Moderates: The Left Isn’t Why McAuliffe Lost Virginia
The worst thing that could possibly happen is for the party’s conservatives to read McAuliffe’s loss as a sign that Americans are turned off by the Democratic agenda.
Max Burns
Updated Nov. 03, 2021 4:16AM ET / Published Nov. 03, 2021 12:35AM ET


snip//

Democrats worried about 2022 don’t need a crystal ball to understand what needs to be done. Supermajorities of Americans are already shouting their preferences: They want as much of Joe Biden’s Build Back Better agenda as possible—and a Democratic Party willing to stand behind his ambitious and necessary promises. The worst thing that could possibly happen, then, is for the party’s conservatives to read McAuliffe’s loss as a sign that Americans are turned off by the Democratic agenda.

snip//

While McAuliffe may have been hoisted by his own overconfidence in Virginia, lawmakers heading home to their districts in 2022 will face their own reckoning. There’s one simple trick to averting a Democratic bloodbath next year: Do what voters say they want. A Vox/Data for Progress poll conducted last month found 71 percent of voters support raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans, and 60 percent support Biden’s signature spending plan at the full $3.5 trillion. These aren’t mere “suggestion” numbers — they’re supermajorities. Democrats ignore those clearly stated wishes at their own electoral peril.

Passing a robust domestic spending program and moving quickly to advance a voting rights package is the minimum Democrats can do to show they are acting on Biden’s lofty campaign promises. Those are also two key areas where conservative Democrats—not progressives—are opposed to the consensus within both their own party and their own country. For all their complaining about making Build Back Better work for “regular Americans,” voters want a deal that looks much more like Pramil Jayapal’s than Joe Manchin’s.

In a moment of party panic, Manchin wants Democrats to believe that the way to please voters angry over the lack of a big Biden spending bill is to make that spending bill even smaller and potentially kill it entirely. The opposite is true, and Biden’s continued support for Jayapal’s progressives during negotiations heavily implies the White House agrees. Instead of spending months dissecting what is ultimately an unfortunate but not unexpected outcome in Virginia, Democrats should return to work prepared to pass an agenda that actually resembles their 2020 platform. Joe Manchin won’t be happy.

[rickyhall]

1. All this for one greedy little man.

[lagomorph777]

20. And one greedy little woman.

[Susan Calvin]

43. Neither of which

is a "moderate."

[lagomorph777]

83. Oh, hell no.

These people would have called Eisenhower and Nixon flaming commies.

[JustAnotherGen]

2. Dear Moderates and Progressives

Stop grandstanding and get something - anything passed. Today.

Stop fucking around.

[Sunsky]

5. A million times this

I find both of their jump to blame the other group very tone-deaf. We are tired of the back and forth. Get something done now!

[CentralMass]

40. How dare the President and the other 48 stand in the way of the

Sinema Manchin agenda.

[Sunsky]

53. Who said that?

[JustAnotherGen]

50. Exactly

I just watch Virginia become a red blood bath and you know why?


Right or wrong every single Republican repeats the party line - Candidates and Voters.

CRT - Bad
Vaccine - Bad
Gas prices - Bad
Democrats - Socialists

[FoxNewsSucks]

6. Progressives aren't grandstanding,

nor are they dealing in bad faith.

They've worked their asses off for Biden, capitulated far more than they should ever have, and are still living up to their word. What else do we have to sacrifice on the altar of Manchin & Sinema's donors?

[demmiblue]

9. +1

[Celerity]

25. +2

[TheRickles]

30. +3

[bluewater]

42. +1000

[Susan Calvin]

44. + a million. nt

[Bettie]

57. This right here

and yet, now they are expected to give up everything....(ETA) while Manchin and Sinema get everything they want, or rather don't want.

[myohmy2]

69. +1...

...

[DLevine]

71. Hear, hear! nt

[yardwork]

77. I'm right there with you.

[qazplm135]

10. Bothsiderism

Isn't any more accurate in this scenario.

[bluewater]

52. ikr

[Act_of_Reparation]

17. This isn't a bothsidesdoit issue.

Progressives have legitimate electoral concerns to consider when signing off on a gutted infrastructure bill. Manchin's demands do not reflect the needs or desires of his constituents, nor would it matter even if they did (he's not likely to be reelected).

I understand the practical need to get something passed, and I largely agree that somebody, anybody needs to just budge and make it happen, but as long as we're assigning blame here we shouldn't pretend there's a moral equivalency between the Manchins and the progressives, because there just isn't.

[question everything]

23. Right. The infrastructure bill that already passed the Senate

[wellst0nev0ter]

27. No, just the radical minority in the Dem caucus

Progressives are ready and willing to pass what the vast majority of Americans want. Why is the radical minority standing in the way?

[Susan Calvin]

45. You said it!

Radical.

[oldsoftie]

31. We have an infrastructure bill passed by the Senate.

The House should vote on it & pass it as well.
NOT voting on it just gives the GOP the ability to say "see, we worked with them on a bill and they still want more"

[Cryptoad]

35. What's teh Ole Political edict

"snatching Defeat from the jaws of Victory"??????

[Autumn]

51. The Progressives aren't fucking around and grandstanding. You must have them confused

with a couple of "moderates" who are doing their best to fuck President, his agenda, the American people and the Democratic party in 2022. Blaming the Progressives is bullshit. They have done all the can to get those 2 lousy votes. All that's left is for them to tear up everything and tell Manchin and Sinema to write the bill themselves and they will vote for it.

[area51]

60. +1 n/t

[yardwork]

76. Sorry, I don't agree with this at all.

[themaguffin]

3. Wh's saying that it is? It's also bad to call Manchin & Denim Vest "moderate" as that's not what

...they are.

Their views are based on their donors.

[LT Barclay]

66. There was a phrase for that, but it was banned in 2016.

[Greybnk48]

4. 100% this! EVERYONE of my Dem friends are just waiting with dread for

President Biden and the Dems to fold and water down BBB. EVERYONE wants Biden's agenda, NOT Manchin's.

The people I know are not radical, or crazy; they're almost all seniors with a few 30 something's (friends of my kids), and they back finally having some help from the government instead of everything going to the wealthy.

[FoxNewsSucks]

7. That says it all right there.

[DENVERPOPS]

67. Speaking of everything going to the wealthy

Why have the Dems not made an issue of glenn youngkins employment history..............

And provided info about the CARLYLE group............600? of the wealthiest in the U.S. that are an "investment group", not a public corporation so they don't have to give out any of their financial information. Youngkins was a 20+ year employee and CEO of the organization.........If my memory serves me, HWBush was made the Chairman of the Board for ten years after his failed re-election.........

[FoxNewsSucks]

84. McAuliffe probably avoided that topic because

he is also connected to Carlyle Group.

https://apnews.com/article/business-government-and-politics-acf69af841f7752a3b08726d1f9feda5

A little over halfway down the article:

The details in some cases may be politically damaging for Youngkin, but the situation is also complicated for his Democratic critics, who have tried to portray Youngkin as too close to former President Donald Trump. McAuliffe himself invested in Carlyle before and after becoming Virginia’s governor in 2014.

The former Democratic governor’s public disclosures show no current ties, but records reveal that

McAuliffe invested at least $690,000 in Carlyle funds between December 2007 and the end of 2016. The actual figure is likely much higher because the disclosures require candidates to acknowledge only a broad range of investment with no upper limit in some cases.

McAuliffe spokesperson Christina Freundlich said McAuliffe has made no investments in Carlyle since 2014, describing him as a passive investor with no role in crafting the deals. She noted that many major institutions were among the investors, including the California Public Employees’ Retirement System.

He couldn't bring it up because he also likely profited from Trumpkin's elimination of American jobs.

It's disgusting. No Democratic candidate should ever be associated with any capital group that destroys American businesses and lives, but particularly the Carlyle Group. That's the group that the Bush Crime Family used in order to work together with the bin Laden family. Carlyle is even worse than Bain Capital. I should be a policy, and in this case it prevented the Democratic candidate from using what should have been a good point against Trumpkin.

[DENVERPOPS]

88. Thanks FNS

It was rumored that Carlyle was deeply involved, during the first gulf war, with being a middle man to the Military Industrial Complex for all the supplies and equipment needed in IRAQ.

Thx for your info.......It made me try to think of a time when I have been able to vote for a candidate that wasn't just merely the lesser of two evils. I couldn't think of a single presidential candidate......The only candidate I would have voted for, and felt good about was Carter. I couldn't vote in that election, because a voter had to be 21, instead of 18. Glad that was changed, although looking back, our knowledge at 18 wasn't much. It was changed to 18 because we all said if we were old enough to be forced to go into the military, and shipped off to Vietnam to kill, then we were surely old enough to be able to vote.

[Wicked Blue]

8. K&R

[demmiblue]

11. ...

This is insane - had the left got their way, the Biden agenda would have passed into law, and Americans would now have paid family leave and lower prescription drug prices WHICH A MAJORITY OF REPUBLICAN VOTERS SUPPORT TOO.

Link to tweet

[ananda]

22. Manchin, the Reeps, and all the Corporatists are not interested in voters...

or people in general.

All they care about is wealth and power.

Period

[The Magistrate]

12. Mr. Burns Has The Right Of It, Ma'am

[Fiendish Thingy]

13. Let's Go Manchin, Let's Go Sinema. Nt

[bucolic_frolic]

14. OK, but what if the only thing that motivated Democrats in 2020 was Trump on the ballot?

Ditching Trump was a very real agenda for Democrats and moderate Republicans and America.

Now Republicans can have Trumpism without Trump. They like this even more, and Democrats are like ho-hum.

[Me.]

15. UNtil Something Actually Gets Done

Talk means nothing. They say they are going to pass the bill this week...we're waiting.

[Trueblue Texan]

16. Sad irony

Republicans know how to win elections, but don't know how or refuse to govern.


Democrats don't know how to win elections, but are great at governing.

Too bad they can't work together.

[Vogon_Glory]

18. Moderate isn't as moderate as it sounds

The “moderate” label isn’t as moderate as it sounds. It’s actually closer to pre-Reagan Republicanism than to the moderates many of us older, grayer Democrats still remember. I also noticed what happened to formerly-mainstream Republicans in the decades since—they either shifted right to run with Ronnie or they were targeted and defeated by right-wing RINO hunters.

I do not expect much out of Manchin: the days of Robert Byrd and Harley Staggers are long gone, but I think we need more electable and more left Democrats (Imagine some of the red states having a Great Awakening and electing a Hubert Humphrey).

[Raven123]

19. I disagree

Manchin would be perfectly happy if nothing is passed. Time to realize that fact. Unless we keep the House and gain 2 seats in the Senate, BBB is toast. Time to wake up, pass what we can and push hard for the rest. Doing nothing is not an option. The strategy of having 2 separate Bills has been catastrophic. It never made sense to lose all of the Progressives’ bargaining power by separating the infrastructure Bill from the BBB agenda.

[johnthewoodworker]

21. Progressives are supposed to bend over and smile. You must always kowtow to a moderate.

Same as it always been.

[question everything]

24. As long as it is labeled socialist, as long as self described socialists like

Sanders and the squad are the faces of this it will not be accepted.

[H2O Man]

26. Recommended.

[Old Crank]

28. One other thing

Dems need to get their damn asses to the polls and vote. 26+ percent with 3 hours left???

[onenote]

37. Where is your 26 percent number coming from?

That was the turnout percentage in Fairfax County for election day voting with three hours to go. It didn't include the massive early voting turnout. In fact, turnout in Fairfax County was over 59% for the 2021 election, compared to 55% for the 2017 election. But the suburban vote shifted slightly because unlike several of the previous elections, the Republicans figured out that they can't win when the nominate a darling of the far right like Corey Stewart or Ken Cuccinelli who wants to campaign on confederate statues. They won because Youngkin ran a campaign that focused on local issues, like education and taxes, and McAuliffe ran away from the progress the state has made under Democratic control in the past few years. When your the candidate of the party that holds the statehouse and both house of the legislature and you never once mention that fact, you're in trouble.

[Old Crank]

47. From another post in general

He said that with 3 hours left to vote there was a 26% turnout at that time.

[onenote]

48. This is the post I saw

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100216007645

[Joinfortmill]

29. The answer is to VOTE. Just damn vote.

[quakerboy]

62. The answer is earn votes

Produce or lose.

[2Gingersnaps]

32. Let's see.....

Almost no repercussions for the attempted fascist coup of our Constitutional Republic, billionaires sneering at the idea of a fair tax structure, representation for our taxation in the form of the Build Back Better program that actually serves the needs of the taxpaying citizens......and the continuation of the bullshit culture war.

Repeat after me.....CRT is a legal theory discussed in law school, it isn't going to make your pig tailed darling delight hate herself, and violence against the school board is just a continuation of the fascist attempted coup. God forbid your little quarterback or cheerleader be taught actual fact in school so that when they go to college and get smacked with a critical thinking requirement they are not totally lost. The bullshit culture war is what you are trading a civilized country for.

[world wide wally]

33. Manchin is even beyond McConnell's wildest dream come true

[onenote]

34. The reason that McAuliffe lost is that Youngkin ran a better campaign

than McAuliffe.

McAuliffe has never generated a lot of enthusiasm among Virginia voters (he won in 2013 with less than 48 percent of the vote). Independents and suburban Republicans abandoned Republican candidates in recent years because the Republicans nominated far right types like Corey Stewart and Ken Cuccinelli and picked issues like confederate statues to emphasize. The establishment republican figured that out and made sure that the darling of the far right in Virginia, Amanda ("Trump in Heels" ) Chase was prevented from getting the nomination. She might have run third party (and opened the door for a McAuliffe victory) but she stayed out and played a role of outreach to the Trumpers, allowing Youngkin to maintain a semblance of distance. All of which made the independents and suburbanites more comfortable with a candidate who focused on local issues like education and taxes.

McAuliffe ran a lousy campaign. He put himself on the defensive with his parents/schools comment. And he simply ignored the progress that Virginia has made in the past several years of Democratic control: moving up to 7th in the US News ranking of the best states; achieving far lower COVID deaths per capita compared to states with Republican governors like DeSntis and Abbott. Not a word about that -- leaving the field open for Youngkin to portray the state as being in crisis.

[JudyM]

36. This is my view, as well.

As a Virginia resident, I felt like he phoned it in until the numbers looked bad for him. He appeared to consider himself entitled to the crown instead of working his butt off for it - and for us. It’s possible it’s just the ‘opposite party wins the governorship’ syndrome, but he didn’t seem to put in the necessary effort to reach folks with a powerful message.

[Susan Calvin]

46. Yep. nt

[mahatmakanejeeves]

70. Thanks. I wish we could upvote posts. NT

[Jon King]

38. Simply WRONG, WRONG, thinking, people won't vote infrastructure, BBB, or 1-6.

This all sounds great, of course people say they support those things. But that is NOT what they choose who to vote for on. Emotion, crime, borders, perception, messaging....that is what suburbanites will vote on.

Dems can pass these things and scramble home to campaign. It will not hurt but will not decide the swing areas at all. Neither will anything that comes out of the 1-6 investigations.

Its messaging, its perception that swings votes. Suburban parents in VA were angry at the world because their kids got hammered by Covid closures of schools. So they lashed out at those in power. Suburban parents heard a great message, bogus, but well played by Repugs, that the radical left was going to decide that their kids would learn that being white was a crime, that trans kids would be playing their daughters in sports.

The Repugs are hammering that Dems are soft on crime, spouting skewed stats. Repugs are hammering Dems that the borders are open. Repugs have taken over the education messaging with stories of trans kids raping, dominating sports, the CRT lie, etc.

These bills will not do a dang thing to stop the 2022 slaughter. Expert messaging and well run campaigns to take back the narrative might.

[SouthBayDem]

68. So vote for the "COVID is fake but treat it with horse medicine" party

to lash out at the Democrats for responding to a pandemic, now that vaccines have allowed schools to reopen?

I do not get American voters.

[zentrum]

39. Great Headline. Thanks.

[Aviation Pro]

41. I cannot post the expletives I've assigned these two here

Suffice to say, my anger is red hot over these fucking clowns.

[calimary]

49. Joe Manchin won't be happy? Tough shit!

Friends, Joe Manchin won’t be happy with ANYTHING that actually attempts to help people. Excuse: it costs too much. He’ll say anything and promise and reassure til the cows come home, but when it’s time to vote to make it happen, he’ll always pull up lame and whine that it costs too much.

I wish somebody would ask him: “all this nice talk but no meaningful action: DO YOU really, actually want to help people in need? OR DON’T YOU want to help people in need?????” I feel like calling him”Platitude Man. Cuz that’s where he is. Lots of nice/hopeful-sounding platitudes all the time, but when it comes to FUNDING that nice/hopeful stuff, he pulls up lame and is nowhere to be found, and when he IS found, he’s not interested in helping anybody at all.

He’s a whole lotta NOTHING. I think we shouldn’t bother wasting another nanosecond on him. What we should be going is reducing his power platform in the Senate by adding more Democrats. Then he and the EQUALLY-worthless Sinema wouldn’t matter so much anymore.

I’m frankly surprised he still wants to be considered a Democrat. I’m surprised he hasn’t switched parties.

[hooverville]

54. The obvious reason we lost

The progs, who have all the energy, don’t have the numbers. If they did, Manchin and Sinema would be irrelevant. We should have cleaned house last election but didn’t. And why is that? They trotted out “defund the police” which was followed by a crime wave and when schools were getting hammered during the pandemic, these school boards decided to act out their ideology and started renaming schools instead of taking care of business not to mention all this annoying puritanical “woke” stuff which is getting old, has just made matters worse and created a backlash and just pisses off and alienates everyone. It didn’t help Biden didn’t anticipate Delta, muffed Afghanistan, and didn’t show enough urgency with the supply chain bottleneck and inflation. Democrats, stop doing stupid shit. We can’t have Trump again. No way no how. This isn’t a center vs left matter, it’s a making sure the trains run on time matter. We are Democrats and have to demonstrate government can work or the Republicans are right.

[The Magistrate]

55. Some Sound Points Here, Sir

Welcome to the forum.

[marble falls]

56. And some distressing ones, also.

[The Magistrate]

61. True, Sir

I take some of it for advocatus diaboli done well.

[Moebym]

58. Poor messaging is the most commonly cited reason for the loss, but where are the solutions?

I'm rather sick of seeing or hearing overly broad statements such as "we suck at messaging" and "we are being out-messaged by the Republicans" from Democrats or people of the liberal persuasion. These are incredibly lazy arguments that have proven to be popular in liberal circles as poor substitutes for thoughtful discussion.

1. We are communicating our agenda and vision.
2. We don't have Fox News, OAN, Newsmax, right-wing religious leaders, and a slew of right-wing talk radio programs to help spread our message and carry water for us.

If the argument is that we are not communicating effectively enough, then the most important consideration is, what practical steps should we be taking right now to more effectively communicate our vision to voters? What are key practical takeaways from this failed campaign that will help future campaigns? These are the types of discussions we should be having, not 500 variations on "we suck at messaging".

[Laura PourMeADrink]

65. Hire some kind of PR? Get Mad Ave admen and Hollywood

Dem big donors to come up with a simple PR plan. Listen to the great speeches of Mario and Ted. Get back to our roots. We need to become bleeding hearts again! My 2¢

[keithbvadu2]

59. Trump and Republicans haven't made a peep about voter fraud in Virginia since Glenn Youngkin won

Trump and Republicans haven't made a peep about voter fraud in Virginia since Glenn Youngkin won

https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-republicans-silent-voter-fraud-claims-youngkin-virginia-election-2021-11

[FBaggins]

72. Not quite true

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=16015727

[eilen]

63. Virginia was not about BBB.

Republicans voted for a republican that was not Trump or Trumpy. If Bloomberg ran saying the same things as Youngkin, he would have won.

it was all culture war BS and TM shot himself in the foot saying the truth, that parents don't decide curriculum after a year and a half of parents dealing with a curriculum and absolutely sucking at it. They already thought they were smarter than the teachers before the pandemic.

also... sing it in a racial tune (CRT) in a Southern State and you have yourself a chicken dinner.

Plus Young-kin is wealthy, successful, happy, personable and not a bitter reactionary-- does not echo Trump like many other stupid Trumpers pols are. It remains to be seen how he will govern. Imagine if it were not an active anti-Trump Kinzinger running for governor. Exactly why Ross Douthat says he should run for president (while conveniently forgetting that Trump is the front-runner and will eat whatever R's lunch that dares to challenge him).

[Quixote1818]

64. Maybe that was McAuliffe's problem. He is too moderate as Republicans are starting to run

populist campaigns since Trump started doing so. I don't know enough about each campaign. Just a possibility to consider?

[FBaggins]

73. Pieces like this are common after a tough election - but miss the point

This always happens. Regardless of how the election turned out, one side will say that the true lesson is that we need to move further in their direction in order to win next time... and the other side will say exactly the opposite. If we won, it's because of (insert side here). If we lost it's because of (insert other side here). The same thing is true between the two parties, not just for clashes within the party.

But here's what this misses in the current environment. Who are we trying to convince?

This appeal is titled "Dear Moderates" - but misses the point that it is those moderates who have to make the decision on which way to go from here. And I'm not talking about just Manchin/Sinema or a handful of recalcitrant "moderates" who have held things up in the House. I also don't care whether you want to label them as "not really moderates - they're captured by their donors" or "they're really republicans". I'm talking about 54 specific people: Four blue senators in AZ/GA/NH/NV and 50 members of the House who are potentially on the bubble.

It doesn't really matter whether "progressives" believe that they are the problem or not. Almost none of their seats are in any danger. But there are about 21 blue House members who won in 2020 by fewer than five points and another 29 who won by ten or fewer points.

People are paying attention to the headline races (VA/NJ governors) and trying to spin what the results mean... but the underlying shift was substantial. Whether you see it as 12 points (VA) or 15 (NJ) or even more (the TX special election appears to have shifted ~20 points)... almost every one of those 54 Democrats is potentially in jeopardy depending on how the next 12 months go.

So it's a good thing that the piece is directed at "moderates" - because they're the ones who need to be convinced.

One place to start? Maybe stop assuming that we know what the people want based on polls that have shown for several cycles now that they don't know what people think or what will influence their votes.

[empedocles]

78. A good start

[bucolic_frolic]

74. Not only that but Republican-lite is also a fail because there are so few of them around anymore

So we have to aim somewhat left of center, rather than at the middle. Why did we go with the former Governor?

[yardwork]

75. This isn't about moderates vs. progressives.

Manchin and Sinema aren't moderates. They're bomb throwers.

[empedocles]

79. Again. The President & the Speaker wanted, and knew, Dems badly needed a House bill

passed well before Nov. 2.

Some in the House refused the deserving Biden/Pelosi wisdom - to no good end.

They just made Biden, and Democrats, look weak.

[onenote]

87. Virginia has enacted popular progressive legislation in the past two years

Higher minimum wage, repeal of death penalty, gun control measures. But from McAuliffe's campaign, you would never know that. It was a huge, fatal mistake because it left the field open for Youngkin to depict the state as being in chaos and did nothing to rally Democrats with the message of how much has been accomplished at the state level.

[disndat]

80. I agree with Biden

the intransigence of the left caused the lost of Va.just like AOC's "defund the police' caused the Democrats
the narrow win result of the Democratic Congress in the 2020 elections.

[Roisin Ni Fiachra]

81. He lost Virginia because of Manchin, Sinema, and racists. nt

[onenote]

86. Virginia rejected racists like Corey Stewart and Ken Cucinelli

So why did Youngkin win? Because McAuliffe failed to associate Youngkin with those past racist campaigns. He failed to make the argument that Youngkin was just another Republican trying to use race to divide us and take us backwards. He ran an abysmal campaign.

[lark]

82. Joe Mancin killed McAuliffe's chances & it seems he did it on purpose.

Why have that so destructive and horrible lashing out at Democrats that Mancin did on the eve of the election other than to fuck up McAuliffe and Dems in general. He probably hurt Murphy a lot too, but he failed on that target.

[onenote]

85. That's just nonsense.

McAuliffe killed McAuliffe's chances. The Democratic legislature and governor in Virginia have successfully pursued a progressive agenda in the past two years, eliminating the death penalty, increasing the minimum wage, instituting gun control measures, expanding voting rights. Yet McAuliffe ran away from that record, not mentioning it. So don't blame Manchin, because this was a race that turned on local issues and McAuliffe utterly failed to make Virginia's successes a part of his message, leaving the field open to Youngkin to portray the state as being on the verge of collapse. When you have a great message: jobs (Virginia's post pandemic unemployment rate is better than 3/4 of the states, including DeSantis' Florida and Abbott's Texas) and COVID response (again, Virginia's per capita death rate is better than states with Republican governors like Florida and Texas). The message should have been don't let Youngkin and the Republicans take Virginia backwards. But McAuliffe said nothing -- absolutely nothing -- about Virginia's recent success story, instead focusing on what he did from 2013-2017, which merely fed the impression that since then things have not gone well

[Bettie]

89. I agree with you on this

but I also think that Manchin's public hissy fit wasn't helpful at all.