The Richmond Times-Dispatch‘s Jeff Schapiro, considered one of Virginia’s most influential political observers, wrote some scathing words about Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe on Monday, implying that the current controversies surrounding the gifts Virginia Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell received may actually turn Virginians off from McAuliffe.
“Like junk food, Terry McAuliffe is a lot of flash and sizzle; a shock to the palate; filling, not satisfying. Too much is bad for you,” Schapiro writes, saying the Democrat is the “Big Mac of Virginia politics.”
He added that though McAuliffe has a chance to win this November because of the gifts Virginia’s Republican Governor Bob McDonnell received from Star Scientific CEO Jonnie Williams, he “keeps stumbling over the same obstacle: himself.”
Schapiro argued that McAuliffe’s “embarrassments discourage Democrats and election-deciding independents; confirm their wariness of him and give them an excuse to stay home, which guarantees a Cuccinelli win.”
He continued, “They want to view him as a level-headed, practical, non-threatening alternative to Cuccinelli. Instead, they see him as a tall George Costanza with hair: bumbling, deceptive, loud.”
McAuliffe cannot change the subject this election, Schapiro observed, because the “subject is the candidate.” He mentions the “investigation of McAuliffe’s electric car company in Mississippi by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission” and how it “uses a federal visas-for-jobs program to lure foreign investors.”
And Schapiro called McAuliffe out for insisting that “all he knows about the SEC investigation, which apparently began six months after he left GreenTech, is what he’s read in the newspapers, though he acknowledges complaining about the sluggishness with which bureaucrats handled visa requests.”
“That’s the thing about McAuliffe: He’s always got an explanation for something that defies explanation,” Schapiro writes. “But that’s the Washington way, the troubling political tradition in which McAuliffe came up. When questions are asked, McAuliffe suddenly is the victim. It might work if more voters liked him–and polls indicate they don’t.”
Schapiro indicated that Virginians do not like McAuliffe, especially his “ambidexterity” on issues such as coal, and asserts that McAuliffe’s style without core principles is emblematic of a Washington where “bipartisanship is measured by the millions you make for investors from both parties.”
In fact, he suggested, the Star Scientific stories may make Virginians fear that putting McAuliffe in the middle of such a culture that allowed McDonnell and Republican Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli to receive gifts may not be the most prudent thing.
“Too much of it may not be good for Virginia,” Schapiro reiterated.
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