Winners and Losers: Aug. 7, 2008

Compiled by Chris Graham
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GET IT RIGHT: I didn’t say what they’re saying I said

A GOP volunteer complained to a staffer working the AFP/New Dominion booth at the Augusta County Fair that he doesn’t believe half of what I write because I wrote a few weeks ago that Republican Congressman Bob Goodlatte’s internal polls had him losing to Sixth District Democratic nominee Sam Rasoul.

Reality check – didn’t write that, because if I did, I would be saying something that I couldn’t possibly know to be true.

I’ve never been privy to Goodlatte’s internal polling numbers, nor have I ever claimed to be. The item that our GOP friend cited had me reporting on poll numbers that had been made available to me that showed voters in the Sixth were ready for a change in their representation in Congress or at least willing to consider such a move.

I then wrote, and I quote – “I’m sure his own polling is going to tell him the same,” referring to Goodlatte in that instance.

I’ve got no problem with people disagreeing with me on my thoughts and opinions and conclusions and the rest. But don’t – let me restate, don’t – misrepresent my thoughts and opinions and conclusions in a public setting.

   

MCCAIN BEING MCCAIN: I think this was Version 2000.0

Did you hear what John McCain had to say the other night to a teletown hall in West Virginia about tire pressure?

“I agree with the American Automobile Association. We should all inflate our tires.”

Applaud McCain for coming back to the realm of common sense with the rest of us. Me personally, I didn’t understand that whole thing about handing out tire-pressure gauges labeled Obama’s Energy Plan or some such nonsense, except that I did in a sense understand it. The McCain who agrees with Obama on the tire-pressure issue and who tells George Stephanapoulos that tax increases are on the table to deal with our record budget deficits is the Real McCain. The McCain that the McCain campaign dominated by the Bush/Rove crowd wants to sell to the American public is a work-in-progress that unfortunately comes across as a Kerry-like serial flip-flopper and supreme sellout.

I can only imagine how conflicted it is there at the front of the bus.