Virginia Gubernatorial candidate Robert McDonnell (R) is currently fighting off one of those annoying little facts from his past that has become a factor in his current candidacy for Governor of Virginia. It seems that back in his college days at a regional religious university, McDonnell wrote a thesis in which he proposed that government should in effect disciminate against working women, gays, and certain other groups. The thesis was unearthed, of course, by McDonnell's opponent Creigh Deeds (D).
The whole matter has also, of course, been played up in the press, and has become an issue in the campaign because the views expressed in his thesis are considerably at odds with his current political persona of a business-oriented moderate. Democrats now suggest that the thesis proves McDonnell is the devil incarnate; Republicans, interestingly, do not deny that the beliefs McDonnell expressed are damaging, but they equally vigorously assure us that people can change, and that McDonnell has. Neither position is quite objective.
I certainly believe that people's beliefs change over time (mine have) and that we should credit anyone with the ability to change. On the other hand, McDonnell's thesis was written when he was 34 - hardly the age of callow youth (he's in his 50's now). Virginia is a very closely divided purple state, so McDonnell has every reason to try to run down the middle of the road, and to avoid bringing attention to views like those in the thesis, which would be unappealing to many Democrats and Independents. Voters will make their own determinations as to how much McDonnell has moderated his views (or whether he needed to). In our current political environment, I doubt that the thesis will alter many people's perceptions one way or the other.
(A side note: the fact that McDonnell could write such a thesis and get a degree for it points up the fatuity of the notion of a "religious university." Whether it's a Christian university like Regent, or a Muslim medrese in Iran, the words "religion" and "university" are incompatible, because the sphere of inquiry is by definition limited.)
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