Fred Barnes: The Obama Campaign Playbook Descends on Virginia

Go negative, stay vague on policy, and stress a GOP 'war on women.'

Negative campaigning is common in American elections, but Democrats in this year's high-stakes race for governor of Virginia have taken things to the next level. In a TV ad that began airing in mid-July, the Virginia Democratic Party accused Republican candidate Ken Cuccinelli of questioning "whether Medicare and Social Security should exist," citing pages 62 and 63 in the candidate's recent book, "The Last Line of Defense," as its source.

Then the fact checkers stepped in.

On those pages, it turned out, Mr. Cuccinelli merely noted that the two entitlement programs create dependence on government. But that wasn't all he wrote. FactCheck.org discovered that Mr. Cuccinelli had addressed Medicare and Social Security on pages 237 and 238 as well. He wrote this: "I'm not questioning here the existence of these programs nor the wisdom of how much is spent on them." The ad was wrong.

Once the accusation was exposed as untrue, you might have expected Democrats to pull the ad. Or Terry McAuliffe, the Democratic candidate for governor, to apologize for it. Not so.

More than a week after the inaccuracy was exposed, the ad continued to run in the Richmond, Norfolk, Roanoke and Washington, D.C., media markets. Over the last two weeks of July, Democrats spent $220,320 to air the ad. It was still running this week, with the Harrisonburg market added.

This episode may sound familiar. In the 2012 presidential campaign, Priorities USA Action, a super PAC backing President Obama, ran an ad implicating Mitt Romney in a woman's death from cancer. The woman died five years after Mr. Romney's firm, Bain Capital, closed a steel firm, and her husband lost his job and health insurance. For most of that time, however, she had insurance of her own. So the connection to Mr. Romney was tenuous at best. Nonetheless, the PAC, headed by a former Obama staffer, refused to stop running the ad.

The similarity of these two incidents is not a coincidence. As the press has noted, the Obama playbook is being tested at the state level in the Virginia governor's election. Mr. McAuliffe, a former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, has enlisted Obama operatives and is seeking to spur voter turnout by emulating the high-tech, grass-roots effort that worked effectively for the president.

But there's more to the Obama model than a strong ground game. Other aspects include waging an overwhelmingly negative campaign, shunning a specific agenda, stressing a Republican "war on women," and counting on the media to treat its tactics as unexceptional.

Mr. McAuliffe's campaign is the Obama campaign writ small. It's ruthless and vitriolic and aims to persuade Virginia voters that Mr. Cuccinelli's plans for Virginia are not only wrong, but also dangerous to many of its citizens, especially women

Mr. McAuliffe doesn't use the phrase "war on women," but he comes close. He argues, without citing any evidence, that Mr. Cuccinelli's social conservatism distracts him from important duties. "You cannot grow our economy when you consistently attack women on health issues," he said in a recent interview. Thus, the McAuliffe argument goes, Mr. Cuccinelli is unfit to be governor. This tracks the Obama campaign's case that Mr. Romney, as a corporate vulture, was unacceptable as president.

Mr. Cuccinelli, 45, Virginia attorney general since 2009, is not a helpless victim. He characterizes Mr. McAuliffe, 56, as a crony capitalist who's out for himself, not average Virginians. The Cuccinelli campaign is relentless in pointing to Mr. McAuliffe's ties to Green Tech, an electric car company he headed until last December and is now under investigation for possible fraud. Mr. McAuliffe promised to locate a Green Tech plant in Virginia. It wound up in Mississippi.

But unlike Mr. Cuccinelli, Mr. McAuliffe seems to specialize in negative campaigning. Twenty ads by the McAuliffe campaign or the Virginia Democratic Party are posted on their websites or YouTube. More than 15 are direct attacks on Mr. Cuccinelli. An ad featuring the endorsement of Mr. McAuliffe by Carole King, the singer and composer, starts positive. Then she attacks Mr. Cuccinelli over "horrifying actions from the attorney general's office" to limit abortions. Earlier this year, Mr. Cuccinelli ruled that existing abortion clinics must obey stringent new health requirements.

In the first gubernatorial debate on July 20, Mr. McAuliffe criticized Mr. Cuccinelli in his opening and closing statements. He spent much of the 90-minute session on the attack. When he got to his own agenda, Mr. McAuliffe was vague. He favors "mainstream, bipartisan compromise on jobs and the economy," he said.

This, too, came from the Obama playbook. The president famously declined to seek re-election on specific issues. There's a reason for this tactic. It minimizes the matters on which an opponent can focus attacks. It certainly worked for Mr. Obama and may for Mr. McAuliffe, In most polls, Mr. McAuliffe has a narrow lead.

The Cuccinelli campaign believes, with some justification, that the press goes easy on Mr. McAuliffe. "Honestly, if I were a member of the Virginia press corps, I would be embarrassed at how Terry McAuliffe consistently, and apparently without consequence, makes up whatever floats his boat at any particular moment," Cuccinelli strategist Chris LaCivita said in a memo to reporters in July.

In the first debate, Mr. McAuliffe gave the press plenty of dubious statements to focus on. He claimed the prosecutor who cleared Mr. Cuccinelli of wrongdoing for failing to disclose $12,000 in gifts had actually said he should be prosecuted. Fact checkers jumped on this, with Politifact Virginia concluding nothing "remotely supports McAuliffe's claim." Of the gifts, $5,000 came from Jonnie Williams, a manufacturer whose gifts and loans of at least $140,000 to current Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell have created a highly publicized scandal. Mr. McDonnell recently repaid the loans and returned some of the gifts.

Yet fact checkers didn't bother the Obama campaign and don't seem to upset Mr. McAuliffe either. I think a political calculation is involved here: What's gained from making an unsubstantiated accusation far outweighs any pushback from fact checkers. Sadly, this is probably correct.

Like other presidents, Mr. Obama is anxious about his legacy. One thing's for certain: He has bequeathed a cynical playbook for winning elections. And if it works for Terry McAuliffe, who lost the governor's race in 2009, many more candidates are bound to embrace it.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424...Opinion_LEADTop

more 'war on women.'

Can we stand anymore ??

McAuliffe is in deep shit. He has serious ethical issues and a company he has close ties with is under investigation. Of course the Rats are pulling out all the stops. They want that seat back and they are in trouble.

Quote: Frank Cannon wrote in post #3

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McAuliffe is in deep shit. He has serious ethical issues and a company he has close ties with is under investigation. Of course the Rats are pulling out all the stops. They want that seat back and they are in trouble.

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Just for starters....

Zitat

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Car company with ties to Terry McAuliffe is under SEC investigation

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/c...c56e_story.html

Also some wood pellet company he claimed to own and operate doesn;t exist.

Quote: Frank Cannon wrote in post #5

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Just for starters....

Zitat

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Car company with ties to Terry McAuliffe is under SEC investigation

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/c...c56e_story.html

Also some wood pellet company he claimed to own and operate doesn;t exist.

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THANKS !!

Anthony Rodham, the brother of former secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton .....SOUNDS LIKE A DOUBLE HEADER TO ME !!

Va Gov Race and 2016 .....good !!

Terry McAuliffe is slick ...the Clintons owe him big time !!

Can't understand how he got involved with the Loser Brother !!

@W-Girl
@Frank Cannon

Fast Terry – Full Movie
(The Movie Terry McAuliffe Doesn't Want You To See)

Zitat

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About The Film:
Fast Terry was produced to finally shed light on a man who has embellished his business record. Terry McAuliffe has been a flamboyant political fundraiser who built his businesses and wealth through political connections. From chief fundraiser for the Democratic Party, to the Clintons’ right hand man, McAuliffe has profited from being at the center of power. In this 30-minute documentary, Fast Terry exposes how McAuliffe’s politically motivated business decisions and empty promises have impacted the lives of Americans from Franklin, Virginia to Tunica, Mississippi.

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http://fastterry.com/?page_id=500

HI ....where you been, FJohn ???


I am not paying $4 to Terry !!!!

DNC Chair Caught in Global Crossing Scandal

http://www.judicialwatch.org/archive/new...002/0402a.shtml

Quote: W-Girl wrote in post #9

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HI ....where you been, FJohn ???


I am not paying $4 to Terry !!!!

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Did you finish painting your fence ??

You got lots of helpful hints ....did you see ??

Quote: freeperjohn wrote in post #11

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W-Girl
This is a film that will destroy Terry M.'s Governor chances.

The movie on the site is free!

There is no charge unless you want to order xtras.

Of course .. If you know how, you can download the movie and burn it yourself.

I sent you a PM yesterday about my absence.

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Quote: W-Girl wrote in post #12

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Did you finish painting your fence ??

You got lots of helpful hints ....did you see ??

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Quote: Frank Cannon wrote in post #3

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McAuliffe is in deep shit. He has serious ethical issues and a company he has close ties with is under investigation.

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