Waynesboro: Former Mississippi governor talks up Obama campaign

Chris Graham

Story by Chris Graham [email protected] It was a midday Thursday event in Waynesboro featuring a former Mississippi governor stumping for Barack Obama. You wouldn’t expect to see more than a handful of people on hand, right? So then when 55 people show up to see Ray Mabus talk about what Obama wants to do to…

Virginia Politics: Voter rolls swelling in Dem-friendly areas

Chris Graham

Staff Report Democrats are working hard to add to the voter rolls in Virginia, and their efforts seem to be paying off. Registrations are up 10 percent this year in a number of Democratic Party-leaning cities and counties in the Old Dominion, according to a report in today’s Washington Post. The analysis showed that registration…

David Cox: Mean time

David Cox

Column by David Cox It happened in Buena Vista. Then Minneapolis. I guess it was inevitable that 2008 political races would get downright mean. On Labor Day, when each year our very own BV becomes the political capital of Virginia, senatorial candidates Jim Gilmore and Mark Warner wasted no time in trying to flatten the…

White House ’08: The Mythbusters Strike Back

Chris Graham

Story by Chris Graham [email protected] You could call it the Democrats’ version of the Sarah Palin Truth Squad. “I have some very serious concerns about the qualifications for the office and some of the issues that they are running on in terms of change that doesn’t meet the facts of the situation,” said former Alaska…

White House ’08: Puttin’ lipstick on a pig of a politics story

Chris Graham

Story by Chris Graham [email protected] John McCain said of Hillary Clinton’s health-care proposal last year: “I think they put some lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig.” McCain made a similar-sounding remark about former GOP presidential Mitt Romney during the New Hampshire primary: “Never get into a wrestling match with a pig. You…

The Top Story: Obama, McCain visiting Va.

Chris Graham

The Top Story by Chris Graham [email protected] Barack Obama is not welcome in Southwest Virginia. That was the rather curious, to me, anyway, message today from the presidential campaign that has said that it will tone down the partisan rhetoric and even reach out across the aisle to welcome Democrats into its reform-minded administration if…

Rick Gray: All in the timing

AFP

Op-ed by Rick Gray Timing is everything. Four years ago, on Christmas night, I flew to Manchester, N.H., to spend a week of my precious winter holiday knocking on doors for Howard Dean. This year, I’ve slapped a McCain sticker on my bumper and agreed to write this piece. Let me explain. I’m a liberal,…

White House ’08: Unemployment on the rise, and candidates respond

AFP

Story by Chris Graham [email protected] Another key measure of economic performance appears to show the continued effects of slowdown. The national unemployment rate rose four-tenths of a percent in August, topping the 6 percent mark, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment fell in the manufacturing and employment-services sectors, with gains in the mining…