Sabato:
"Allen fears Webb. And he ought to," Sabato said. "Webb has some conservative positions and a conservative background in some ways, but he is staunchly anti-Iraq war. He's got military and intellectual credentials that make George Allen wilt."
More Sabato in the subscription-only Time:
Jim Webb is George Allen's worst nightmare: a war hero and a Reagan appointee who holds moderate position [...] Allen tries to project a Reagan aura, but Webb already has it.
Visit Jim Webb's campaign site.
Update: While the national establishment rallied around Webb at the last minute, Miller was the state establishment candidate choice for much (if not all) of the race. Larry Sabato wrote back in March:
Miller seems to be the choice of a good portion of the Democratic Party establishment, while Webb is viewed as a high-risk/high-reward opponent for Allen.
Webb was the outsider candidate for most of the race, and that establishment support really followed in the heels of the great grass/netroots support Webb built inside Virginia.
This comment from expo is quite interesting:
People don't realize that Miller dominated the paid media. Absolutely dominated. Webb benefited from strong earned media, but that was more than balanced by Miller's strength in paid media.
In the City of Alexandria, Miller was endorsed by the Mayor and the entire City Council and a number of local legislators.
Alexandria went for Webb 2:1.
Guys, what in the hell happened here?
The only two plausible explanations are (1) the extreme level of online activism for Webb, or (2) a major backlash against Miller for his negative ads. NoVa is one of the most wired and most politically-knowledgeable communities in America. In a low turnout election its conceivable that NoVa voters, who are more likely to get political information through the web, ended up turning out and going for Webb big. It also makes sense that like in most low-turnout primaries, older voters (55+) tend to show-up most heavily and they, already angry at politics as usual, revolted against a negative, politics-as-usual campaign from Miller.