Negative blowback finished Allen

Although three weeks ago it might have seemed that Virginia’s political blogosphere only existed to promote or attack candidates, now its purpose appears to have enlarged to touch on a range of topics. For instance, now it is a place for organized partisans getting ready for 2007 to discuss strategies, plan brighter futures and recruit.

Alas, it has also become a place for those so inclined to gloat, or to wag fingers of blame. There’s been no shortage of either.

While perusing the posts on the Virginia Political Blogs, the quite useful blogs aggregator web site, I’ve learned from a few boasting bloggers that in their semi-unbiased view, it was their own too-cool-for-school blogs which were chiefly responsible for certain Nov. 7th victories. Imagine that...

And, I’ve also read that Senator-elect Jim Webb won -- collapsing a perceived 16-point advantage by his incumbent opponent -- because of his outrageously negative campaigning, which painted Sen. George Allen as a longtime racist.

No, I am not making that up. Try it for yourself, if you care to click on the link above, commentary amounting to such should not be hard to find. Every day since the election there have been several posts along that line available at that web site.

In my own view, what I saw was that Allen lost more votes owing to the bitter blowback from his own negative advertising than anything the Webb camp ever did to him. And, on this point I must put a special emphasis on the last-ditch attacks on Webb’s writings as deviant and misogynistic, which ran incessantly on television during the last week of the race.

Nearly every credible/independent anaylsis I read in the week after the election mentioned that factor as telling.

On top of that, it should be noted that the damage to Allen from his Macaca Gaffe started with his own sloppy mouth. Yes, Webb-supporting blogs helped push the story, but it became a news story with long legs because it was the first thing of its kind -- a YouTube suicide by a thought-to-be unbeatable candidate.

Furthermore, that YouTube video revealed a side of Allen the public hadn’t seen before. Not so much a “racist,” as it was a “bully.” Afterwards, the Allen team’s damage control was so bad it should be studied by both parties as the way NOT to do it.

In a matter of a few weeks, Allen’s image as an aw-shucks, good-guy -- a Southern gentleman -- was in flames. Then, after the comedians on TV got through with casting Allen as the bumbling bully, all that was left of his carefully cultivated political persona was ashes.

In truth, once the cat was out of the bag Webb’s camp and his bloggers didn’t have to do much. The story line was already out there -- it had to do with an incumbent who stumbled, lost his momentum, and couldn’t get it back. That story, which no doubt hurt Allen, was reported relentlessly by the mainstream media during the stretch run.

Why?

Because it had serious national implications, and because it was funny. “Macaca,” a word Allen claimed to have made up himself, is a funny-sounding word. For a punch line, the late Lenny Bruce would tell us the “double-k” sound is primo.

For Republicans, whether they are blog writers or blog readers, to continue to believe that George Allen lost to Jim Webb, because Webb went negative on Allen, is preposterous. Those clueless enough to buy into that fantasy probably also think former Virginia governor Jim Gilmore has a bright future as a GOP candidate.

Hey, don’t laugh, Gilmore is working like a little beaver to resurrect his political career as you read this.

Well, I’ve got some news for such pachyderms wallowing in denial -- Virginia’s donkeys will be as happy as hee-haw to see you run either Jim Gilmore or George Allen for statewide office again.