Tim Kaine’s Advocacy for Obama Will Haunt His Campaign
As a member of the House of Delegates, as a congressman, as governor, and as a United States senator, Allen was the epitome of a pro-business government official. Kaine, too, was regarded as pro-business, but that was B.O. — Before Obama. On Election Day, I have a strong hunch that Virginians will prove once and for all that they understand political gimmickry when they see it and correctly conclude that Tim Kaine is just another smooth-talking politician like Democrats before him who stood for one set of principles when they ran for state office and another set when they sought advancement in the Democratic Party at the national level.
Barack Obama is a noose around Tim Kaine’s neck, and Kaine ended up on the gallows by choice. The 2012 presidential election will be a referendum on Obama’s performance as president. Forget promises about hope and change and personalities this time around. This election will be about the president’s dismal record, and Tim Kaine can’t hide from the role that he played as an Obama enabler.
In 2008, candidate Obama promised to heal a polarized nation, but he has surprised even his most ardent critics with his bafflingly stubborn political brinkmanship. Obama is the most polarizing president that our nation has ever seen. His signature piece of legislation, ObamaCare, is a perfect example. He literally shoved it down the throats of legislators from both political parties and totally ignored strong objections from a majority of voters. No one even read the bill before Obama signed it into law, and that includes the president, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and Tim Kaine. Yet all of them, including Kaine, did their utmost to sell it to the nation as the cure for our country’s healthcare ills. The Supreme Court is in the process of deciding if ObamaCare is constitutional — an issue that was raised by many before the bill was passed and blithely swept aside by the president while Tim Kaine applauded.
As I said, President Obama is in serious trouble in Virginia, and so is Tim Kaine even though the polls don’t show that convincingly at this point. Compared to Kaine, George Allen looks like a knight in shining armor despite the fact that he made mistakes in 2006 that cost him re-election to the Senate. Allen’s two most significant missteps in 2006 were calling one of Jim Webb’s aides a “macaca” and making disparaging remarks about his role as senator.
“Macaca” is regarded by some as a racial slur, and Allen paid the price for using that word. He also paid the price for demeaning the role that senators play while he was seeking re-election. Those things are ancient history now, and they pale by comparison with Kaine’s support for President Obama and his misguided programs and tactics. Interestingly, Allen’s frustration with the Senate had to do with its slow pace of activity and the fact that very little is accomplished in that august body. Those are frustrations that most Virginia voters share. When they enter the voting booth and pull the lever, the last thing that most of them will want to do is send another Democratic senator to Washington to take a seat in a chamber that’s led by do-nothing Democrats who can’t even pass a budget. Virginia voters want real change. George Allen offers them that hope, especially if Republicans take control in the Senate.
The “macaca” incident did tell me a few things about Allen’s character, which is not “ancient history.” He answered questions evasively. I’d still like to know what he meant by calling that dark-skinned kid “macaca.”
But I’m not a Virginian, so it doesn’t much matter.
Ah, Mister Kaine. You have allied yourself to Obama in the same way as Germany did with Austro-Hungary during WWI, The relationship of which was once described by the German foreign minister as, “we are fettered to a corpse.”
Yes, I will vote for Allen. Kaine has tried to step back from some of Obama’s policies, particularly on energy, for instance off-shore oil exploration and keystone pipeline.
Professor Snyder is right Kaine will go down hard in November. Kaine ran on a no new taxes are necessary platform (after the previous governor increased sales taxes) for governor. Within two weeks of his inaugaration, Kaine was trying to create 5 or 6 new ‘fees’ to fund transportation. The only reason he was not successful was a conservative House of Delegates.
Virginians know Kaine is a tax and spend liberal and will work hand in hand with Obama to tax the ‘rich’, that is why Kaine will not win. But we will have to read about 50 more stories in the Washington Post on how Allen said, ‘macaca’.
I am a Virginian and Geo. Allen is not the GOP’s best choice, Bob Marshall is.
Heck, anyone can probable beat Kaine. He only won the Gov seat by riding Werner’s coattails when he was Lt. Gov. He wouldn’t have won on his own.
I interviewed Kaine the other day for a newspaper. I was surprised. He was conversational and forthright, answering questions itelligently–a rarity, I have found, among politicians. True, Allen isn’t nearly as communicative. The trouble with Kaine: If we Virginians elect him, we also will likely get a continuation of a Harry Reid Senate. That will be a national disaster. Kaine may be the better man; Allen is in the better party to guide our nation’s future….Far better. The alternative is something to be precluded at all cost.
“There was absolutely nothing in Obama’s record indicating that he had the makings of a good president…”
Sure there was. He dressed well, he had a winning smile, and he was BLACK. Add to that a great public relations team that could sell people one shoe, and also add a few good meaningless slogans (like Hope and Change), and you have yourself a manufactured candidate that was all things to all people. Like an empty canvas, the Obama public relations team in 2008 manufactured Obama just like any other rock star. The problem was, this “rock star” eventually had to govern. It didn’t seem to matter that he never ran a town, a county, a city, a state, let alone a major (or even small) business. Nothing, yet this person was “qualified” to run the most complicated nation on the planet. Our television culture was taken in by a manufactured celebrity, just like Paris Hilton. In fact, it was like making a Paris Hilton President of the United States.
Well, it’s not going to work again because this man actually HAS a record now that he has to run on. And that record isn’t too pretty, is it. In fact, it was a downright disaster. So maybe, just maybe, this time around we can actually elect a president who actually did something useful with his life. Romney may not be the most conservative person in the world, but at least he ran a large state, he ran a major corporation, he ran (and saved) the Olympics, and he is no stranger to financial matters, something we desperately need right now. And trust me, friends, that’s a heck of a lot more than what we had to choose from in 2008. Time to send Obama back to Chicago so that he can spend more time with his real pals, Bill Ayers and the “Reverand” Wright.
Aren’t you overlooking the polls showing Obama with almost 50% approval even after 3.5 years of being the worse President in US history. The problem is that at least 50% of the electorate WOULD elect Paris Hilton President. The US electorate is stupid, and it will take physical pain to make them smarter. In that there is good news if Obama is re-elected. The pain he will cause will be undeniable. maybe that will wake up the public.
Kaine will also have to answer to the Obama administrations attacks on religious liberty. Kaine a catholic, has to be concerned about this as he has never been ashamed of his religious affiliation with the catholic church. Many people in Virginia are very protective of their liberties as it relates to the Constitution and we all know that our nation’s history practically began in Virginia. Remember St. John’s church where Patrick Henry gave his infamous speech; well there are alot of Patrick Henry’s still in Virginia. While there may be plenty of liberal progressive in Virginia, conservatives far outway them and they ain’t a-gonna have none of this crap Kaine has been promoting.
Virginia voters, and indeed the nation, has come to grips with the fact that the Obama they helped to elect in 2008 is not the Obama they wanted. Obama never hid who he was, the media hid his character and inexperience and anti-Americanism. We don’t need to see Obama’s college transcripts to know this guy can’t talk off the cuff or write a decent paragraph, much less lead a nation of free people (although his transcripts are hidden as well). The media didn’t tell the truth about who he is, and rarely tells the truth now.
“For that deception, there should be hell to pay on Election Day.” … and there has been — in 2009 when Virginia went Republican big time and New Jersey voted in Christ Christie as governor, and 2010 when the entire nation was seeing Red (as in Republican). Democrats have been exposed for who they are, and it’s not just Obama. Democrats should be defeated wholesale, and if the media would just tell the truth about them, they would be.
I want every Virginian to remember what it was like to wait half an hour in line for the bathroom in a dicey gas station, because Tim Kaine closed down the rest areas. The clerk and the cigarettes were behind bulletproof glass but there you were, sticking to the floor; it was that nasty Citgo or a tree somewhere.
Tim Kaine is a putz.
Challenger Bob McDonnell made then-Governor Tim Kaine look/ sound like a total dips hit during debate, discussion.
Like Obama, Kaine COULDN’T run on his record because it was dreadful.
McDonnell could have tried to lose that election and still would’ve won the governorship.
Senator Webb is crying uncle already for he too put all his eggs into Uhbama.
As for Senator Warner..
Barack Obama is a noose around Tim Kaine’s neck…
Obama is a noose around everybody’s neck, but you, Dr. Snyder, have blown a “dog whistle” that will have the Obamanians screaming racism at you.
Before the macaca incident, Allen was a shoe-in. Kaine only won by a .02% advantage. With that “m” incident in the far past, Allen should win hands-down. The Virginia dems still like Kaine & think he did a great job. It’s the Independents who he’ll lose, what with the Obama relationship. The only reason he’s running for the Senate is that the job he hoped Obama would give him didn’t pan out.
“Before the macaca incident, Allen was a shoe-in.”
Absolutely. And I don’t think it was the macaca gaffe itself that cost him the election. Allen’s problem was that from the very beginning he took the win for granted. I think his eyes and mind were on the 2008 presidential election, so he did a lousy job preparing for the senatorial one. He also grossly underestimated Jim Webb.
He won’t make that mistake again.