I don't.

Sure Allen is free to throw everything against the wall to see what sticks. Just as others aren't required to sit still while he does it. In a democracy, some people just feel the need to point out when buffoons in the public eye indulge in buffoonery.

I understand where you're coming from on this, Zach, but I don't see why we can't have plenty of anger to spread around for _both_ the sleazoid candidate himself, _and_ for the sad fact that our democracy depends in no small part on a segment of the population gullible enough to be swayed by his tactics.

Moreover, if democracy is flourish and be strong, it will do so in part by the willingness of the political elites to call out their fellows when they engage in anti-democratic behavior. Their anger is thus very appropriately placed, in terms of what is good for the polity at large.

Allen's campaign is one of the more bizare ones I've ever seen up close. You have this novel thing, the digging up of Webb's commentaries about letting women into the Naval Academy, and, most recently, attacking what Webb said about the Tailhook Scandal (Webb called it a feminist witchhunt, which a lot of conservative commentators were doing at the time, as I recall). It's almost like Allen is the liberal and Webb is the conservative.

On the ground, it appears Allen is making the same mistake that Jerry Kilgore did in his gubernatorial campaign last year -- ignoring the swing vote in NoVA. Webb's guys have been at the Metro every day for the past 6 months. Allen's guys haven't been here once. If Allen goes down, it's because he, like Kilgore, ignored the wealthy DC swing suburbs and tried to run entirely on the GOP's downstate strength.

As far as I can tell, both Allen and Webb have Southern "good old boy" backgrounds with latent racism and chauvinism in both their pasts. And as far as I can see, neither is a racist or a chauvinist today. Too bad this race is being focused so much on "gotcha" politics.

Eric,

As far as I can tell, both Allen and Webb have Southern "good old boy" backgrounds with latent racism and chauvinism in both their pasts. And as far as I can see, neither is a racist or a chauvinist today. Too bad this race is being focused so much on "gotcha" politics.

I am well aware of Allen's "background with latent racism," but your sentence construction can be read in a way that suggests Webb also has racial skeletons in his closet. If that is what you meant to suggest: examples, please.

Now, Eric, if you (i) had been paying any attention in the first place, or (ii) took a measly 5 minutes of googling to do your homework, you would know that Allen, in fact, has no such background! He grew up in California and Chicago, and didn't live in the south until he transferred to UVA as a sophomore. That's a large part of why people are a bit freaked out about how pro-Confederate Allen is -- if he was, in fact, an actual good ol' boy (which is the correct spelling, btw) then at least he would have come by his racism honestly, and could just as honestly disavow it. But for a boy from Palos Verdes to go so far out of his way to be a racist and a CSA apologist, well, that's rather off-putting, isn't it?

Iwould also note that it's the Allen campaign, not the Webb campaign, that has fed this atmosphere of gotcha-ing. The Webb campaign has spent most of its time focused on substantive issues, like the failed war in Iraq & the economy. The closest to 'gotcha'ing has been some pretty serious stuff about some failures to disclose options that Allen owned, and which he repeatedly lied about. It's the Allen campaign that has had nothing to offer but lies and (attempted) gotchas.

phil,

You're right. I haven't been paying close enough attention to the VA race to know that Allen has only lived in the state for only the past 35 years of his life, not his entire life. Mea culpa. (Also, Bob Knight shouldn't be considered a famous Hoosier because he grew up in Ohio and coached at West Point before coming to Indiana at age 30.)

Regarding which campaign "has fed this atmosphere of gotcha-ing," I was not aware of any significant gotcha-ing until the Webb campaign used YouTube to promote controversy over the silly "macaca" incident. If there was something before that, please let me know. My non-online life keeps me from being completely informed on Senate races not in my home state.

If you can't distinguish between having been raised in a background of a given sort, and merely living in a state after one has become an adult, then that's your problem. (Compare: Bill Clinton is a redneck, because that's how he was raised. Hillary, who lived for much of her adult life in Arkansas, is not, because that is not part of how she was raised.)

Also, if you for some reason feel compelled to continually make assertions about things that, by your own declaration, you are poorly informed about -- and which, again, you apparently can't be bothered to perform 5 minutes of light googling about -- then that's your problem, too. (You might want to seek professional help, to avoid further public embarrassment.)

phil,

First of all, I didn't say Allen was "raised" with a Southern background, I said he *has* a Southern background. I'd say that 35 years living in a culture, starting when one is a sophomore in college, is enough to say that one has a background in that culture. (Or are you prepared to argue that 19-year-olds are not at all impressionable?) So I'd say my original point is still valid, despite your usual anal retentiveness.

Second, I think these elections have made you come unhinged. Though I almost always disagree with you, you usually have come off pretty even-handed. These days, you're coming off like a partisan hack. If you can't let a casual comment lamenting the low state of a campaign go by without jumping in to argue that the Republican is much worse than the Democrat, and becoming rude and obnoxious in the process, I think it's clear who might need some professional help--or at least some decaf.