Last night I pointed out that Cook Political Report’s Dave Wasserman was the first person to call the race for Glenn Youngkin.
I've seen enough: Glenn Youngkin (R) defeats Terry McAuliffe (D) in the Virginia governor's race. #VAGOV
— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) November 3, 2021
This morning, Wasserman was pointing out that when he first suggested Republicans had a chance to win the governorship, back on May 10, most people didn’t take it well. Here are a few sample reactions:
Nope: not when Biden approval ratings are 60%+ Dave; and not if @TerryMcAuliffe is the Dem nominee; and not when the R nominee is someone who tied themselves to Trump all thru the GOP nomination process. Will not even be close.
— David I. Ramadan (@DavidIRamadan) May 10, 2021
— Bad Faith ✝️🐴🇺🇲 (@Jeffdc5) May 10, 2021
Not the Virginia I live in. But go ahead and lie. There's no real consequence for you.
— Fred Brown (@frebrown) May 10, 2021
Nope. I shall bookmark and come back and laugh.
— Tashica (@Tashica4) May 10, 2021
Needless to say, he’s not laughing. There are hundreds more of these smug, dismissive tweets from lefties but don’t rush over to dunk on them because every single one of these tweets already has multiple people doing that. One guy even dunked on his own old tweet with a bit a Jesus paraphrase:
Let he who has no 6-month old tweets that have not aged well cast the first stone.
— point.less.ness (@spambot3049) November 3, 2021
I’m not interested in throwing stones at Twitter randos, but not everyone who disagreed with Wasserman at the time fits that description. The Washington Post‘s Jennifer Rubin actually got into an argument with him.
rarely disagree but VA is not going to elect a Trump R governor. period. It's bluer than PA, Mich and New England
— Jennifer 'pro-voting' Rubin (@JRubinBlogger) May 11, 2021
Vt, Mass have GOP govs. NH had a GOP senator as late as 2016. Maine recently had a GOP gov.
— Jennifer 'pro-voting' Rubin (@JRubinBlogger) May 11, 2021
no, it shows VA which hasn't had a GOP gov or senator in years is bluer when it comes to statewide races. I just don't see any factual basis currently for your analysis that it is a a competitive race
— Jennifer 'pro-voting' Rubin (@JRubinBlogger) May 11, 2021
Can you see it now? It got me wondering how many other times Rubin had assured people the VA race was a gimme for Democrats. The answer is quite a few times. Early on she concluded Youngkin had no real chance:
Youngkin’s fundamental problem is he is running against a successful former governor who backs policies Virginians have embraced. Trying to remake VA suggests a reactionary return to the old VA that has been out of fashion and out of power for decades.
https://t.co/S4mn3sIIRX— Jennifer 'pro-voting' Rubin (@JRubinBlogger) June 9, 2021
Here she is mocking Youngkin as a coward:
He is running scared now that his reactionary views are coming out, Trump has bear-hugged him and VA is #1 business state for 2nd year in a row. https://t.co/YxcffGCkk6 pic.twitter.com/Nty3WaFtO6
— Jennifer 'pro-voting' Rubin (@JRubinBlogger) July 13, 2021
She also blasted him as an extremist:
Opinion | Glenn Youngkin is no moderate. He’s a staunch right-winger. <– hey, this is holding up quite well. https://t.co/55WZalQBhL
— Jennifer 'pro-voting' Rubin (@JRubinBlogger) July 13, 2021
And agreed with Paul Begala he had no chance and anyone who said otherwise was “delusional.”
why I have thought the CW "this could be competitive" is bunk and notion youngkin was some brilliant choice for GOP was delusional
— Jennifer 'pro-voting' Rubin (@JRubinBlogger) July 13, 2021
Here she is praising McAuliffe as a candidate other Democrats should emulate:
Terry McAuliffe should show how to run in a moderate D state on the extremism of Rs effort to control women's lives. Can't make 'em wear a mask, but force them to endure a pregnancy and childbirth? No problem!
— Jennifer 'pro-voting' Rubin (@JRubinBlogger) September 2, 2021
McAuliffe runs against Texas and Florida. Other Ds should follow. https://t.co/6qqtVXXTpp
— Jennifer 'pro-voting' Rubin (@JRubinBlogger) September 5, 2021
She was really pleased with McAuliffe’s debate performance:
McAuliffe at debate did 4 things (or Youngkin did to himself): 1. Youngkin is the extremist on abortion. 2. Youngk is vs. mandates 3. McAuliffe has a record 4. The great crime issue is actually a McA plus
— Jennifer 'pro-voting' Rubin (@JRubinBlogger) September 17, 2021
The whole race was a done deal:
Terry McAuliffe maintains a 7-percentage point lead over Republican Glenn Youngkin (48%-41%) https://t.co/mQeYSCeXDW
— Jennifer 'pro-voting' Rubin (@JRubinBlogger) September 29, 2021
She was quite certain of the outcome all along. So maybe it’s no surprise she hasn’t tweeted anything at all yet today. There’s one retweet blaming GOP “conspiracies.”
Dems have been down w/ a new president before. Va Gov when GOP eight months into Obama's first term, midterms were then bad w/ Obamacare backlash etc.
challenge now is the uncontrollable lying, misinformation, conspiracies being successfully trafficked by GOP
— Eric Boehlert (@EricBoehlert) November 3, 2021
Again, progressive randos make smug, dumb comments all the time. That’s to be expected. But you expect someone who does this for a living at one of the country’s leading newspapers to occasionally rise above being a pure hack and admit everything isn’t as obvious as clear cut as she’d like it to be. But nuance just isn’t Jen Rubin’s beat.
Update: She has spoken! And, well…
I realize critics say Dems have gone too far left but that doesn’t compute. The agenda is very popular. They simply haven’t gotten over finish line yet
— Jennifer 'pro-voting' Rubin (@JRubinBlogger) November 3, 2021
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