Deeds’ “October Surprise” Fizzles Before September; Media Left Scrambling To Find Something Other Than Issues To Cover

Oh, THIS is rich.  It seems as if Bob McDonnell’s impressive 90 min. conference call with the media yesterday poured cold water on Creigh “What’s In Your Wallet?” Deeds’ attempt to revive his flagging campaign with an early misfire of an “October Surprise” in late August, the week before Labor Day, when most people are on vacation and not really paying attention to the news.

By late today, stories about McDonnell’s 20+ year old thesis were off the local TV and radio newscasts.  And just before 9 p.m. even the WashPo’s website mainpage was devoid of any anti-McDonnell screed.  The only people in the media still trying to drill something out of this dry well were the WashPo’s Anita Kumar and the RTD’s Jeff Schapiro.

Kumar spent the afternoon calling conservatives asking for reaction to McDonnell “flip flopping” on his thesis.  I take it this means the WashPo’s official position now is that McDonnell is not some sort of crazed right-winger.  Of course, that is exactly the same position that the WashPo took back in June when they wrote:

“Democrats in turn will try to depict former attorney general Robert F. McDonnell, the Republican nominee, as a right-wing zealot and Pat Robertson protégé. In fact, both candidates are serious public servants with long records that deserve more careful examination … Mr. McDonnell’s tenure as attorney general, by most accounts, has been professional and not overtly ideological.“

Imagine that.   With McDonnell coming across as calm and rational on yesterday’s call and the WashPo reporting that he is poised to grab the backing of Gov. Timmy!’s biggest ’05 donor, it appears that their fallback position now is to try and weaken McDonnell among conservatives.  Ha!

Schapiro is much more comical.  Just witness this exchange on Twitter between Shapiro and Bearing Drift’s Brian Kirwin:

RTDSchapiro#vagov McD trying to change subject? Today talks up education; tomorrow, opposition to card-check.

BrianKirwin@RTDSchapiro McDonnell talking about issues isn’t changing subjects. Deeds doing so would be.

I’d definitely say that Kirwin got the best of Schapiro on that one.  Hey, Jeff, McDonnell’s campaign had scheduled events on education and card check and other issues long before the WashPo story broke.  You’re just plain silly if you think that the McDonnell campaign is all of a sudden going to stop talking about issues that matter to the everyday lives of Virginians in order to get sidetracked into something that only Deeds and some in the media want to talk about.  Who do you think is running the McDonnell campaing?  Dick Wadhams?

So, tomorrow is another day that Bob McDonnell will continue speaking to the people of Virginia about the issues that matter most to them — jobs, the economy, taxes, transportation, education and public safety.  And tomorrow is another day that Deeds & Co. will spin the roulette wheel once again to select their attack du jour rather than put forth innovative ideas of their own.

UPDATE: Elsewhere in the Virginia blogosphere –

The Write Side Of My Brain – You can’t expect the Washington Post to still believe something they wrote…eleven weeks ago

Bearing Drift – WaPO hypocrisy hits a new high – is Jeff Schapiro a close second?

BD also links to the great Jim Geraghty article on NRO’s Campaign Spot in which he says about the WashPo:

The Post put their credibility on the line behind a candidate [Creigh Deeds] by touting his plans on transportation, and then learned that he didn’t actually have a plan to deal with transportation. The revelation was thoroughly embarrassing, leaving the editors with a need for a new reason to justify their inevitable endorsement of the Democrat in autumn.

That is pretty spot on.  The WashPo editors apparently have much to be embarrassed about, but do not have the sense of shame to realize it.  Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse for the Post, it does…