Elections joke of the day: Washington Post editorial claims 'the center holds'

November 5, 2:18 PMOrlando Republican ExaminerBlas Padrino

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Before Tuesday’s elections, the Washington Post endorsed the Democratic Party slate of candidates in the various Virginia contests. The capital’s influential newspaper, which has a decidedly liberal, inside-the-Beltway slant, circulates widely in the suburban areas of Northern Virginia, where a substantial number of the state’s residents live. It consistently provides free propaganda for the Democrats and the Obama Administration as it seeks to influence the area voters.
Throughout the campaign, it denounced the Republican candidates for Governor, Lt.-governor and Attorney General as dogmatic far-right wing conservatives and touted the Democrats as pragmatic moderates.
Of the race between Republican now-governor-elect Robert McDonnell against Democrat Creigh Deeds, it said:

“Mr. Deeds has compiled a moderate record on divisive social issues that reflects Virginia's status as a centrist swing state. Mr. McDonnell has staked out the intolerant terrain on his party's right wing, fighting a culture war that seized his imagination as a law student in the Reagan era.
“Based on his 14-year record as a lawmaker -- a record dominated by his focus on incendiary wedge issues -- we worry that Mr. McDonnell's Virginia would be one where abortion rights would be curtailed; where homosexuals would be treated as second-class citizens; where information about birth control would be hidden; and where the line between church and state could get awfully porous. That is a prescription for yesterday's Virginia, not tomorrow's.”

Similarly, in its endorsement of Democrat Stephen Shannon over Republican Kenneth Cuccinelli in the Attorney General race, it proclaimed:

“Stephen C. Shannon, is a mainstream former prosecutor -- strait-laced, sober, earnest almost to a fault -- his Republican opponent, state Sen. Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II, is a provocative hard-liner who at times has struggled vainly to attract a single vote for his more far-fetched initiatives.”

As it turned out, the ‘right-wing extremist’ Republican candidates cruised to 17 point landslide victories over their ‘moderate’ Democrat opponents. Moreover, the damage to the Democrat Party in Virginia didn’t stop there, as the Republicans added six seats to their majority in the state’s House of Delegates. But, astonishingly, the Post’s rationalization of the Democrats’ drubbing is that, all of a sudden, the formerly right-wing dogmatic Republicans happen to be center-right pragmatic moderates who even agree with Obama on some issues. According to their revised thinking, that’s the reason they won.
In today’s editorial under the heading “The Center Holds,” the newspaper argues:

“. . . [T]he Republicans who won last night, governors-elect Robert F. McDonnell of Virginia and Chris Christie of New Jersey, ran as center-right problem-solvers. We don't agree with all of their ideas. . . . But there is no denying that their approach worked with the voters. There is a lesson here for Republicans, and perhaps also for Democrats: The results in Virginia and New Jersey may or may not represent a repudiation of the Obama presidency; we tend to think they do not. But they did signal . . . that voters are getting nervous about the size and indebtedness of the federal government. If that fortifies centrist lawmakers . . . then that, too, would be a welcome consequence of Tuesday night.”

If brain contortions of this magnitude could be shown on an MRI, the Washington Post’s editorial board would earn center ring billing with the Ringling Brothers Circus.

Pay up, McAuliffe!

On a separate note, at an appearance on Chris Wallace’s Fox News channel program, former Democrat National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe bet former George W. Bush advisor Karl Rove $5.00 that the Democrats would win both the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial races. Mr. Rove should be slightly richer today, provided McAuliffe didn’t weasel out.

(Above right: From left: Ken Cuccinelli, Bob McDonnell and Bob Bolling celebrate their election victory. AP photo/Scott K. Brown).