The G.O.P. had two big victories yesterday in off-year elections, winning the race for governor in New Jersey and Virginia for the first time since 1997. The New York Times's coverage was dominated by three themes used to explain away the success of Republicans:
Bob McDonnell
By Clay Waters | November 4, 2009 | 3:57 PM EST
By Geoffrey Dickens | November 4, 2009 | 10:13 AM EST
NBC's David Gregory, on Wednesday's Today show, downplayed the huge GOP wins in New Jersey and Virginia as merely reflecting the "anti-incumbency mood," and "the change message that Obama" started last year. Gregory, however, did play up Democrat Bill Owens' win over Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman in the New York 23 congressional race, and even more absurdly Bob McDonnell's win in Virginia as evidence that the Republican's path to victory is to go moderate, as the Meet the Press host postulated: "What's striking is you have the results in New York 23, which Democrats will hold up as a great result for them, but then you have McDonnell winning in Virginia, a purple state. He's a social conservative for his political career, yet he runs more as a pragmatist, as more of a centrist and look at the result. He wins big, wins big among independent voters."
The following is the full Gregory segment with Meredith Vieira as it was aired on the November 4, Today show:
By Matt Philbin | October 30, 2009 | 10:55 AM EDT 
Pity the staff at the Washington Post. Their compatriots at the New York or Los Angeles Times luxuriate in a sea of enlightenment, with blue state voters as far as the eye can see. But the Posties must live and work in uncomfortable proximity to Red State Virginia, with only the thin buffer of the Northern Virginia suburbs between them and the gun-toting snake handlers.
Pity the staff at the Washington Post. Their compatriots at the New York or Los Angeles Times luxuriate in a sea of enlightenment, with blue state voters as far as the eye can see. But the Posties must live and work in uncomfortable proximity to Red State Virginia, with only the thin buffer of the Northern Virginia suburbs between them and the gun-toting snake handlers.
By Scott Whitlock | October 29, 2009 | 11:54 AM EDT
The Washington Post on Thursday continued its quest to defeat Virginia’s Republican gubernatorial candidate, bizarrely citing a "non-partisan" group that, in reality, has endorsed Bob McDonnell’s Democratic opponent. The article by Anita Kumar contained this loaded headline: "McDonnell critics question ideology: Some saw agenda in legal opinions."
Kumar quoted Claire Guthrie Gastanaga, a lobbyist for "Equality Virginia, a nonpartisan gay rights group." Yet, the front page of Equality Virginia’s website features a press release entitled, "Equality Virginia PAC Endorses Deeds for Governor." The organization’s website makes a distinction between its political action committee (EVPAC) and its "non-partisan" activities. However, Kumar made no such clarification. How can a group be non-partisan and endorse the Democratic nominee?
By Scott Whitlock | October 26, 2009 | 12:37 PM EDT
The Washington Post, which features the motto "An independent newspaper" at the top of its editorial page, endorsed Democratic candidates in 22 of 26 races for the November 3 elections in Virginia. In addition to supporting the Democrats running for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general, the paper on Friday, Saturday and Sunday weighed in on the state’s House of Delegates races and picked 19 Democrats and only four Republicans.
The Post, which for months has been attacking Bob McDonnell, the GOP’s nominee for governor, also relied on very personal, angry attacks against most of the Republicans in the House of Delegates races. On October 23, the paper editorialized that Delegate Bob Marshall is "the author of off-the-wall legislative antics that even members of his own Republican Party regard as clownish." [Emphasis added.]
His opponent, meanwhile, is a "sober, sane Democrat." On October 25, the paper’s editorial page also deemed Chuck Caputo to be a "sober, sane Democrat" and complimented fellow party member Mark L. Keam as a "thoughtful, serious community activist."
By Scott Whitlock | October 22, 2009 | 12:19 PM EDT
The liberal Washington Post, which for months has been running a seemingly endless series of attack pieces on Virginia’s Republican gubernatorial candidate, appears to have moved on to a new target, the GOP’s choice for Attorney General. On Thursday, the Post featured a column by Robert McCartney on nominee Ken Cuccinelli and included this ominous headline: "Cuccinelli: In your heart, you know he's to the right of right."
For the benefit of readers outside of Virginia, Cuccinelli is a pretty standard conservative. He’s pro-life, pro-Second Amendment. He’s taken positions in support of lower taxes and restraining spending. Certainly, he’s no moderate. Referring to him as "very conservative" would also be fair. But, according to McCartney, he’s a "militant conservative" and someone "who's so ardently conservative he makes [Republican] gubernatorial candidate Robert F. McDonnell sound like a mealy-mouthed moderate."
In an editorial on Wednesday endorsing Cuccinelli’s Democratic AG opponent, the Post used the same hyperbolic, scary language. The unsigned editorial derided Cuccinelli, who is currently a state senator, as a "provocative hard-liner," someone who supports "far-fetched initiatives" and holds "bizarre and incendiary ideas." The paper generally found his campaign "worrying."
By Scott Whitlock | October 21, 2009 | 3:59 PM EDT
A Washington Post staff writer on Wednesday swore that it wasn’t the "goal" of the newspaper to elect Virginia’s Democratic candidate for governor, despite the paper’s wave of attack coverage against the Republican nominee. Participating in a chat on WashingtonPost.com, Amy Gardner did admit that there’s an "argument to be made" over whether the paper did some "‘prolonged’ reporting" on Republican Bob McDonnell’s 1989 college thesis about marriage and the family.
Gardner, who wrote many of the articles on the 20-year-old thesis about feminism and working women, avowed that the subject was a "legitimate news story that then took on a life of its own and that we continued to cover." Took on a life of its own? In the first 12 days after the story broke, the paper published 11 articles on the subject. Wouldn’t something with a "life of its own" have developed naturally without the aggressive help of the Post?
Gardner was responding to a reader question over whether the news outlet’s extensive coverage actually harmed Democrat Creigh Deeds. She retorted, "Well, certainly there's an argument to be made that we did some ‘prolonged’ reporting on the thesis, but it wasn't with the goal of helping Deeds."
By Scott Whitlock | October 19, 2009 | 11:49 AM EDT
In what could be described as the biggest non-surprise of the 2009 Virginia gubernatorial election, the Washington Post on Sunday endorsed Creigh Deeds, the Democratic candidate that its news section has been touting for months. Beginning in late August, the Post ran numerous hit pieces, 12 in the first 11 days, against Republican Bob McDonnell for a 20 year-old college thesis.
The massive, 1391 word editorial slashed Republican Bob McDonnell’s "intolerant" social positions. Readers could be forgiven for asking if this endorsement was really necessary. On August 30, the Post first inserted itself into the Virginia election by declaring, "'89 Thesis A Different Side of McDonnell." The piece by Amy Gardner tried to link McDonnell’s two decade-old Regent University thesis on marriage and the family to some sort of far right agenda:
"During his 14 years in the General Assembly, McDonnell pursued at least 10 of the policy goals he laid out in that research paper, including abortion restrictions, covenant marriage, school vouchers and tax policies to favor his view of the traditional family."
The editorial on Sunday struck a remarkably similar tone:
By Ken Shepherd | October 8, 2009 | 3:12 PM EDT
<p>In its never-ending quest<a href="/blogs/scott-whitlock/2009/09/09/wapo-expands-quest-torpedo-mcdonnell-12-hit-pieces-11-days" target="_blank"> to "macaca" Republican Virginia gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell</a>, the Washington Post has ably illustrated it is far from being a "post-partisan" purveyor of news.</p><p>Today in the paper's <a href="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2009/10/sheila_johnsons_ma... target="_blank">"Post Partisan" blog</a>, staffer Lee Hockstader displayed once again the paper's determination to help down-in-the-polls liberal Democrat Creigh Deeds limp across the finish line. </p><p>Never mind that the offender in question has already apologized for mocking the Democratic state senator -- who, by the way, <a href="http://campaignspot.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MzQ5NTk0MjUzM2YwMTYzZTM5N... target="_blank">does NOT have a medically diagnosed speech impediment</a> or disability -- and the alleged "macaca" moment was made not by candidate McDonnell about a Deeds staffer -- which would be truly analogous to the original 2006 George Allen episode -- but by an African-American Democratic businesswoman who supported Obama and current Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine (D), but crossed the aisle this to back the Republican McDonnell due to his economic policies. </p><p>What's more, it's hardly earth-shattering news that people at political fundraisers often crack harsh jokes about the politician(s) they are hoping to defeat on Election Day, yet to Hockstader, Johnson's mocking of Creigh Deeds's less-than-artful oratory deserved a 6-paragraph-long entry about how Johnson is like those mean b****es you knew in high school: </p><blockquote>
By Candance Moore | October 4, 2009 | 8:40 PM EDT
Is being endorsed by the Washington Post a good thing for a liberal politician looking to win an election in Virginia?
Such is a question gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds (D) has got to be currently asking himself.
Having gotten the Post's blessing before the June primary, Deeds spent the entire summer letting the paper do his dirty work only to find himself losing a race that Democrats should easily have run away with.
In retrospect, Deeds should have smelled a rat in the very endorsement the Post penned in May:
By Scott Whitlock | September 25, 2009 | 12:32 PM EDT
The Washington Post on Friday buried the announcement by Douglas Wilder, a popular Democratic ex-governor of Virginia, to not endorse his party’s current nominee for that office, Creigh Deeds. The Post placed the story, with the bland headline, "Wilder Declines to Endorse Anyone for Governor," below the fold in the Metro section.
In contrast, the Washington Times highlighted it on the front page, with the announcement: "Wilder to Deeds: That’s Not ‘Leadership.’" Over the last month, the Post has engaged in an aggressive campaign to play up a 20-year-old thesis by Republican candidate Bob McDonnell as supposedly anti-woman, producing story after story.
At the same time, the paper has repeatedly downplayed negative articles about Mr. Deeds. For instance, The Post minimized the endorsement of McDonnell by the powerful Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce, a prominent organization in vote-rich Northern Virginia. On Thursday, the Post hid that story on B4 of the Metro page.
By Ken Shepherd | September 16, 2009 | 1:37 PM EDT
<p>The first major electoral contest following any presidential election is the Virginia governor's race, and no less so this year given Barack Obama having been the first Democratic presidential candidate to win the state since 1964. But this year, the Obama magic may have worn off in the Old Dominion, with Republican Bob McDonnell showing a consistent lead over Democratic opponent Creigh Deeds and on target to end eight years of Democratic governors. </p><p>As <a target="_blank" href="/blogs/scott-whitlock/2009/09/03/wapo-continues-relentless-attack-mcdonnell-nine-stories-five-days">we've documented</a>, the Washington Post has done its best to drag down McDonnell's numbers and boost Deeds, namely by trumpeting a decades-old graduate thesis and hyping it as a potential game-changer in the race.</p><p>But today, when it came to a big snag in his campaign, the Post <a target="_blank" href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/15/AR200909... but buried</a> an article that cast the Deeds campaign in a decidedly unfavorable light. </p><p>The bottom line: either Deeds lied to a police union or his campaign is incredibly inept. Or both. </p><p>It seems the Deeds gubernatorial campaign told two different law enforcement interest groups two conflicting positions on collective bargaining. Yet in reporting the story, the Post placed Rosalind S. Helderman's article on <a target="_blank" href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/15/AR200909... 4 of the Metro section</a> rather than page A1 or even the front page, page B1, of the Metro section.</p>