I'm pretty good at recognizing junk mail, and usually throw it out unopened. Receiving an envelope with no return address but "absentee processing center," and marked "Commonwealth of Virginia Absentee Ballot Application Enclosed," I knew I was getting junk mail. But it was the red-lettered legend, "Do Not Tamper: Official Document" that made me decide to open it to see who was sending me this junk, so I could report this probably illegal implication that this mailing came from a government entity.
Gee, it was just my old friend "Bob." As in Robert "Bob" McDonnell, candidate for Governor of Virginia. Yes, the envelope did contain an application for an absentee ballot (that I had not requested), but it contained a campaign epistle with the same tired old lies his party has pushed for the past year and more: according to "Bob," the federal government is "attempting a government takeover of health care, while pushing massive tax increases...." Also, as a writer, I was amused by the grammatical errors of the letter -- McDonnell is receiving lots of Republican Party bucks for this off-cycle election; he has money to hire a coiffeur to give him the bland blow-dry look of the slick professional pol, but can't find a writer who knows "its" from "it's."
Back in June I suggested that our upcoming gubernatorial race in Virginia would be an interesting faceoff between a Republican (McDonnell) who's striving to present himself as a moderate, and a Democrat (Deeds) who has espoused some very un-liberal ideas. This blurring of lines is reflected in the recent refusal of popular moderate ex-Governor Wilder's refusal last week to formally endorse either candidate.
Over the intervening months since the candidates were named, however, McDonnell has run into trouble trying to sell himself as a "moderate." Though claiming to be pro-business, his public campaign materials have focused more on his military background (wave the flag) and on his belief in strong families (ever the original thinker, he figured out how to father five kids). He has sought, not too successfully, to play down extreme anti-women and anti-gay views he argued for in his thesis at a local religious university only twenty years ago.
So, junk mail has a certain value, but maybe not the one envisioned by this candidate. Too often, choice in elections is between the lesser of two evils (last year's Presidential election was one of the first exceptions in many a year). Is it possible I'll receive an equally dumb bulk mailing from McDonnell's opponent Creigh Deeds? Yes. Would I reconsider? Yes, perhaps, because I seek to be open-minded. I'm the moderate pragmatist McDonnell claims to be but isn't. But the odds are...that this straw broke the camel's back. McDonnell has shown he's more a goober than gubernatorial.
Postscript: Yesterday I wrote in support of an idea McDonnell is pushing to privatize the wasteful state-owned "Alcoholic Beverage Control" stores in Virginia. I'm happy to see the Washington Post editorial staff today agrees with me: It's a valid idea, but NOT because it would generate much savings. (It won't.)
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