Dean Barnett writing on Hugh Hewitt’s highly popular conservative blog weighs in on the Meet The Press debate between Virginia Senatorial candidates GOPer George Allen (incumbent) and Democrat Jim Webb (challenger) and basically says: Don’t ask how it went.
I just finished watching the George Allen – Jim Webb debate on “Meet the Press.� For conservatives wishing for Allen to retain his seat, their best hope is that Virginians were otherwise occupied this morning or that the state’s NBC outlets were having technical difficulties.
Before offering my analysis, I should confess a pre-existing fondness for Jim Webb. Like virtually everyone who has read some of his books, I respect him as an artist but even more as a man. Webb is a war hero, an outspoken and outsized intellectual, a patriot who has tirelessly served his country, and all-in-all a tremendously admirable individual. Our political system is richer when people like Jim Webb decide to enter it.
That being said, I didn’t think Webb would be a very good politician. Webb’s background didn’t suggest that he would take to the tasks that a politician must constantly assume – relentless and humiliating fundraising, the endless happy tolerance of fools, and an uncanny ability to condense complex issues into 90 second sound-bites.
I should also say that given the vital partisan stakes involved this election season that Hugh and I have frequently discussed here, I squarely and unequivocally support Allen’s re-election.
Or at least I did until this morning’s debate. Now I’m not so sure.
Read the whole post. Most interesting was Barnett’s observation that Allen is STILL getting mired in the “macaca” caca that Allen himself created by revealing a bit too much about his own character not just because of what he said but the zillion or so explanations and attempts to explain what he said and why he said it (and some of the explanations from him and his staff are contradictory):
Even if Webb weren’t so impressive, Allen might well have cost himself the election with his continuing inept efforts to defuse “Macaca-gate.� Considering that Allen knew the issue was bound to arise in this morning’s debate, his defense of his comments was fairly shocking: He claimed that “macaca� was a word that he just made up on the spot when he called a young Webb volunteer that name while the video-recorder whirred.
When Allen offered this latest explanation, I’m pretty sure even in Massachusetts I heard the sound of half a million Virginia conservatives simultaneously slapping their heads and screaming, “Oy vey!�
AS EVERYONE HERE KNOWS, I THINK IT’S A MATTER of considerable import that Republicans maintain control of Congress. But, I have to to admit, I can imagine far worse things than having a man like James Webb in the Senate.
This post won’t be a welcome one to the Allen camp.
Meanwhile, here are some images that perhaps depict Allen and his apparent re-election bid as of tonight (but, then you never know in politics: maybe voters will disagree with the pundits and the close-race polls):
PS: Does all of this mean George Allen is no longer being mentioned as a serious name for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008? (Quick: delete those stories written earlier this year from your databases!)
UPDATE 1: Hewitt disagrees with Barnett. And Barnett replies to Hewitt’s disagreement.
There are going to be people who support Allen who are going to insist that he won. This is not unusual in debates. It’s always a bit more eye-opening when you hear the view of someone who is rooting for a candidate for various reasons say that when you stand back and look at it, the other guy won.
UPDATE II: WATCH THE VIDEO HERE.
UPDATE III: This news story about the debate also notes that Webb had some of his own explaining and apologizing to do.
UPDATE IV: A progressive blogger’s take on the debate is here.
NOTE: Our first version of this post incorrectly attributed the quotation to Hugh Hewitt. It was quickly corrected. We regret the error.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.