Sound and Fury

JERRY KILGORE lacked the three things needed for a Republican to be elected governor in Virginia. In order of importance, they are: a dynamic campaign, an issue, and a president who's not a burden. So he lost to Democratic Tim Kaine yesterday in an election that Democrats will claim is more meaningful that it really is. Democrats captured the governor's office in New Jersey, too, but that barely rises to the level of talking point.

Fred Barnes

I usually think Fred is full of mud and this article provides no exception, but he makes a couple of interesting points in it. What he dances all around, but never says is that the problem is less about Bush himself than it is about a GOP that has lost its way. Bush most certainly holds the lion's share of blame for that drift, but he is not alone. The GOP has decided it wants to be Democrat-light and that's not why people voted them into power.