Yesterday The Wall Street Journal came out with a poll showing Jim Webb taking the lead over George Allen. Today I'm sure many of you are asking what the poll means for the rest of the race. We hope that it encourages our tremendous cadre of volunteers and it is certainly more public proof of the benefits that the thousands of hours you all have brought to this campaign provide.
From the perspective of this campaign's strategy, it changes very little. What this poll does do is tell us several things.
1) Virginians respect leadership. George Allen has proven himself to be nothing but a rubber stamp yes man. If George Bush puts it forward, it's a great idea. If George Bush doesn't put it forward, it stinks. One example, 11 July 2006. George Allen tours detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The Bush administration had insisted for months that detainees were being held in accordance with the Geneva Conventions, even though there was no legal requirement that they be held in such a fashion. Allen parroted this line: interrogation procedures "go beyond the Geneva Conventions," he said. The prisoners "are treated very well." Two days later, George W. Bush announces terror detainees at Guantanamo had not been granted basic human and legal protections under the Geneva Convention.
Jim's career has been defined by leadership. He led a group of young Marines into the An Hoa basin of Vietnam. He led the fight to clear the name of Sam Green, a young Marine charged with war crimes. He led the fight to include an African American in the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. In fact, he was called "one of the great leaders of the Vietnam generation," by the 1st Marine Division Association, one of the nation's most historic veteran's associations.
2) Virginians value honesty. This year, Virginians are looking to hire a Senator who will look them in the eye and give them an honest appraisal of the work that has been done in Iraq and the work that needs to be done. American soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen are in harm's way. They and their families deserve to be told the truth about the American armed forces' involvement in Iraq and what the end point is. They want to hear more than "stay until the job is finished." They want to know how the job is defined. Is the job creating a secure and stable Iraqi government? Or, is the job the long-term occupation of Iraqi territory, an option the Bush administration pointedly refuses to answer.
Jim has repeatedly called on the administration to publicly state that the United States has no long term interest in Iraq. He has repeatedly called on the administration to stop building permanent military bases in Iraq. Jim has repeatedly called for the United States to offer leadership in the region and bring all the nations of the region into a discussion focused on long-term stability in the region. Jim Webb has the experience -- both on the battlefield and off -- the willingness, the strategic vision and the desire to re-examine the Bush administration's policies and provide Virginians an honest assessment of where we go from here and when the end will come to our mistaken Iraqi invasion.
3) Virginians roundly comdemn Senator Allen's bullying tactics. If you read this blog, undoubtedly you have seen the video of George Allen calling my friend S.R. Sidarth (we are both huge soccer fans and the cable was in my office during the World Cup) a word that may or may not be 1) a racial slur; 2) a genus of monkey; 3) a play on the spanish word for "shit"; 4) completely made up; or 5) a play on Sidarth's strange haircut. Forget for a second the potential explosiveness of that word and focus on Senator Allen's behavior in the far Southwest Corner of Virginia. For lack of a better phrase, he attempted to bully and intimidate my friend.
Then, after he was done bullying Sidarth, he "welcomed him to America and the real world of Virginia." Again, we'll give the Senator the benefit of the doubt that he was simply talking to Jim through Sidarth and telling him that everything but Northern Virginia was the "real" Virginia. For purposes of this post, we're also going to ignore the Senator's lie that Jim rarely gets outside the Beltway.
The citizens of this Commonwealth vote for people to represent ALL portions of this state. Too often candidates and elected officials play Northern Virginia off against our fellow citizens in the Shenandoah, Southwest, and Southside. I come from the Shenandoah Valley; I'm a proud graduate of Robert E. Lee High School in Staunton. My father went to high school there. I don't feel any more Virginian than my friends from Northern Virginia. I also do my best to remember to thank them for untold amounts of tax dollars they pay to help improve the roads, public safety, and schools of my hometown.
All of this boils down to the simple fact that George Allen's behavior was conduct unbecoming a United States Senator. United States Senators should not try to bully their constitutent, or even the constituent of one of their colleagues. I, for one, hope George Allen is ashamed of his conduct that day in Breaks.
The new Zogby/Wall St. Journal poll proves that George Allen is in trouble. Larry Sabato called Jim Webb George Allen's worst nightmare. George Allen's worst nightmare is coming true, and he doesn't have the leadership skills, the honesty, or the demeanor to dig himself out of the hole he now finds himself in.