Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell is an “interesting” politician. He’s incredibly polished when speaking on script, but if you broadside him with an unexpected question, he fumbles his words like a 16-year old boy seeing a naked woman for the first time. I recall watching Gov. McDonnell on television, explaining in an incredibly eloquent fashion how Barack Obama’s health care reform plan was going to lead our nation to hell in a hand basket. Heck, he almost had me convinced. But then Greta Van Susteren threw a sharp question at McDonnell that he didn’t see coming, and that is when he lost my respect. Upon trying to answer a question about what to do with the uninsured, McDonnell lost his cool faster than a popsicle in a tanning bed. Forrest Gump could have done a better job.
When you are governor of a state like Virginia, you’ve got to be smooth. When you are a governor attempting to explain how our country should commemorate the Confederacy, you’ve got to be Bill Clinton smooth and pretty damn persuasive. McDonnell wasn’t smooth at all recently when a reporter asked him why he forgot to mention the evils of slavery during his announcement that his state will commemorate Confederate History Month. That’s when his critics really got excited.
Going beyond Bob McDonnell’s own inadequacies as governor, let’s think carefully about why a Republican governor in a southern state might want to remember the Confederacy. One can make the logical argument that Confederates, like other radical groups, were an important part of history and deserve to have their memories preserved. I can almost buy that, but not really.
When you are governor of a state like Virginia, you’ve got to be smooth. When you are a governor attempting to explain how our country should commemorate the Confederacy, you’ve got to be Bill Clinton smooth and pretty damn persuasive. McDonnell wasn’t smooth at all recently when a reporter asked him why he forgot to mention the evils of slavery during his announcement that his state will commemorate Confederate History Month. That’s when his critics really got excited.
Going beyond Bob McDonnell’s own inadequacies as governor, let’s think carefully about why a Republican governor in a southern state might want to remember the Confederacy. One can make the logical argument that Confederates, like other radical groups, were an important part of history and deserve to have their memories preserved. I can almost buy that, but not really.