The Arlington County government on Friday put out an advisory that President Biden was coming to Pentagon City on Tuesday afternoon to stump for Terry McAuliffe and other nervous Democrats.
[An aside: Perhaps this sliver of Arlington was the only square mile of the commonwealth where Biden’s staff believed chants of, um, “Let’s Go Brandon” wouldn’t drown out whatever supporters showed up to welcome the beleaguered and frequently dazed and confused chief executive.]
Most interesting to me was that the Friday press release from the county government did not include contact information for the McAuliffe campaign, as had a similar advisory put out earlier in the year when the president — then about 20 points higher in the polls — visited Arlington to stump for the Democratic ticket.
At the time, we in Sun Gazette-land raised holy hell that the county government was blatantly supporting the McAuliffe campaign by sending voters to the Website. County officials, with perhaps their fingers crossed behind their backs and trying to hide their ever-lengthening noses, not only swore that was not the intent, but also kept the link up even after critics (not just us) weighed in. Gotta love the arrogance of one-party government …
One can only presume that leaving out a campaign link this time around is tacit acknowledgement by government officials that they were wrong and critics were right the last time. I got effective, if indirect, confirmation of that from a name that can’t be mentioned because I protect my insiders.
Good to see the error in judgment was not repeated this time out. Then again, Arlington officials may be wondering, far more than they did in the spring when the previous episode occurred, whether they’ll be facing a Republican governor and GOP House of Delegates next year. No need to make enemies unnecessarily, as these kinds of things (using government resources to support your political opponent) do not go unnoticed, and seldom go unpunished.
O’LEARY CALLS IT FOR McAULIFFE: Former Arlington Treasurer Frank O’Leary over the years has spent a lot of time dissecting voter-turnout numbers and attempting to translate that into expected outcomes.
Some years, he’s been dead on the money; others, a tad off. And the advent of early voting in Virginia has caused him to rejigger his formulae to keep up with the times.
Late last week, O’Leary sent a number of us his prognostications for the governor’s race. Based on his analysis of voting patterns and current levels of turnout, he believes Democrat Terry McAuliffe will get over the finish line with about a 2-point margin over Republican Glenn Youngkin.
Well, it’s as good a guess as any, and it’s backed up by some data, so we’ll see how it turns out.
BIDEN IS CLOSE TO LOSING THE BLACK (CAT) VOTE: “Supply-chain problems” — that’s sure the buzzword of our times — are hitting the McCaffrey household where it hurts.
Apparently Giant supermarkets have been having a tough time getting enough cat food, particularly Fancy Feast and most particularly the Fancy Feast “gravy-lovers” version.
Store after store has seen its shelves denuded in recent weeks; I know, because I’ve tried to find enough gravy-lovers Fancy Feast to keep Albert the wonder cat happy. That’s his brand and he’s stickin’ to it, and woe to anyone who deposits some other type of cat food in his bowl.
This Fancy Feast shortage seems to be confined to Giant; Safeway was well-stocked when I visited one after exhausting other options on Friday. So we’re covered for coming weeks.
But let me tell you, President Biden, if our current economic woes keep up you’re going to be losing the vote of one black cat. Oh, wait, a cat can’t register to vote, right? Don’t be so sure: Never underestimate the powers of a PO’d pussy.
- Scott McCaffrey
