Plunging Deeds Poll Numbers Change Post's Tune

In June Editorial, Post Found McDonnell "Not Overtly Ideological"

Contact: Tim Murtaugh 804-780-0111

- By September, McDonnell "Divisive, Disruptive and Partisan" -

- Post Editorial Board Misses 90-Minute McDonnell Press Call -

RICHMOND - The Washington Post editorial board has set a new standard for self-contradiction in its assessment of Republican candidate for governor Bob McDonnell. In a June editorial, the newspaper was full of praise for McDonnell as the general election campaign began, but a scant three months later the Post's editors are frothing madly over the prospect of a McDonnell Administration in Richmond. A cursory examination of the landscape of the campaign reveals that the Post's sudden revulsion coincides with a 21-point drop in poll numbers by their favored candidate, Democrat Creigh Deeds.

Post Editorial: June 11, 2009:

(Deeds Leads in Rasmussen Poll 47-41)

"Democrats in turn will try to depict former attorney general Robert F. McDonnell, the Republican nominee, as a right-wing zealot and Pat Robertson protégé. In fact, both candidates are serious public servants with long records that deserve more careful examination ... Mr. McDonnell's tenure as attorney general, by most accounts, has been professional and not overtly ideological."

Post Editorial: September 1, 2009

(McDonnell Leads in Post Poll 54-39)

"Bob McDonnell ... would make a divisive, disruptive and partisan governor -- a sharp departure from the tradition of generally pragmatic executives who have helped make Virginia one of the better-managed states in the union."

Post Editorial Calls for Answers ...

"Virginians deserve specific answers about where the thinking of his early middle age has shifted, and where it remains consistent."

... But Ignores Exhaustive Press Conference

From Their Own News Pages:

"McDonnell, meanwhile, spoke by telephone to reporters for nearly 90 minutes ..."

From the Richmond Times-Dispatch:

"In an 80-minute conference call with reporters, McDonnell responded point by point to positions that he took in the paper he wrote in 1989 ..."

From MSNBC:

"In an extraordinary, hour-long conference call ..."

From ABC News:

"In a 90-minute conference call with reporters, McDonnell offered a point-by-point explanation of his current views ..."

From the Washington Times:

"The Republican held a 90-minute conference call with reporters to address the paper he wrote while working toward a master's degree in public policy and a law degree at Regent University."

From the Associated Press:

"‘The things I wrote 20 years ago in an academic setting and the influences on my life at that time, many of them have changed because of my family, my job, my legislative experience, my real world experience,' McDonnell said during an 80-minute conference call with reporters."

From the Virginian-Pilot:

"During a 75-minute afternoon conference call with reporters, McDonnell said he is ‘disappointed, but not surprised, that my opponent wants to make this a central issue in the campaign.'"

From the Roanoke Times:

"‘I have great confidence that the citizens of Virginia will judge me on my 18-year record as a legislator and attorney general and the specific plans I've laid out for our future, and not on a decades-old academic paper that I wrote as a student in the Reagan era,' McDonnell said in a lengthy conference call with reporters."

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