Where Was Brian Moran?

Huffpo reports that Brian Moran will be out with an all-out assault against Terry McAuliffe, asserting that McAuliffe didn't switch his support from Clinton to Obama quickly enough during the 2008 campaign.

...[T]here are whispers of lingering resentment among some Obama supporters that he didn't stop fighting when the battle was obviously over; Moran told me that he has heard such complaints from "numerous people" and has no doubt it will hurt McAuliffe in the primary. "There was a time when Democrats needed to come together behind our candidate, and he was very slow in doing that," Moran says.

We all know that after the nomination Hillary Clinton lent her full-throated support to the Obama campaign becomming one of his most successful suoorgates through the general election. And here in Virignia Terry McAuliffe went well beyond the call of duty campaigning tirelessly on behalf of our President Obama.

My questions for Brian Moran is, where was your support for Obama in 2008? Clearly you bravely stookdup for Barack in the primary... what? no you didn't? oh, you were courageously silent through the primary. Well, so it goes.

I'm sure Brian Moran led the charge for Obama in the Old Dominion, I'll link to every news article on it that I can find, except I guess the press never covered them. I'm sure Brian did a lot behind the scenes. Moran did give Obama $250. So, of course he has the moral high ground to attack McAuliffe on this.

Let's also not forget that the Moran camp warmly welcomed to their fold the Virginia political blogsphere's most vitrolic PUMA - Howling Latina. HL, viciously attacked Barack Obama deep into the 2008 general election with such astonishing assaults as

This:

Obama Loses, Clinton Wins
As sure as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, poll numbers are evincing the incontrovertible data that Barky struggles while Hillary wins.

And yet...Obamazoids are still unconvinced...throwing the audacity of their hope in a candidate that's been shown to fall wide off the mark. Indeed, the latest MSNBC and WSJ poll shows that without Hillary on the ticket, Dems are in for another heartbreaking but predictable loss in November.

This:

Support Obama or You're a Racist
If poor blameless Obama loses in November, it's all those low-information, inbred racist Hillary supporters that will have cost him the race.

That's right; it has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that Obama has thugs for pals, an oversized ego, the flimsiest of resume, no moral authority, a racist for a preacher and a myriad of other deficiencies such as his meaningless blather about hope and change without any specificity attached to his words; nope, it's not Obama's fault if he loses.

Or This:

Election Thoughts...
In thinking about the Obama election win, Howling Latina has a bag full of mixed emotions. On the one hand, yes, the new president will be a Democrat, which hopefully means the national agenda will come from the left/center gravity force field. On the other hand, the howler can't help but wonder what might've been if only the Dems had chosen the better qualified candidate as their standard bearer to the disparities of gender equality and to the promotion of women issues.

Last, week the Raising Moran blog trumpeted HL's Moran endorsement despite the fact that it was really nothing more than a gut punch assault on Creigh Deeds, and now Moran is going nuclear trying to drive a wedge between Obama supporters and McAuliffe.

Brian Moran's campaign is exploring the regions of campaigning beyond the advanced stages of panic. He is going nuclear with hypocrisy. With the campaign running on fumes and the tires gone, Moran will now unleash any accusation and any hopeless attack, regardless of the moral low ground.

The hypocrisy of this latest assault is pretty pitiful. Like any good Democrat, McAuliffe took his pick in the primary and then put everything he had behind the nominee. Moran was once a solid Democrat, I fear he will emerge from this contest a broken candidate without a reputation.

Truly pitiful, but again, not unexpected.

UPDATE: Lowell is up with a list of McAuliffe's PrObama appearances and an Obama campaign video featuring Terry McAuliffe. Moran shouldn't have opened this can of worms.

Moran Campaign Enters Panic Mode

Well, this is just getting sad.

First, Moran releases his internal polling numbers.

Kenton:

Greenberg Quinlan Rosner
(Moran Campaign Internal)
606 LV, 4/30-5/3

TOPLINES
McAuliffe 31
Moran 29
Deeds 18
Undecided 22

FAV/UNFAV
McAuliffe 39/17
Moran 36/8
Deeds 31/11

Note that while these numbers show Moran behind, they at least show a dead heat on both toplines and favorables. After two straight double digit polls for McAuliffe, this can only be seen as a sign of outright panic. If the perception locks that McAuliffe is the leader and Moran is offering no message and gaining not traction, his funding and support will begin to evaporate. Such a shame...

Meanwhile, the Moran campaign broke their debate agreement and used footage from a debate in the latest of their pitiful online attacks against McAuliffe.

Read the Farm Team's charges against the Moran campaign at Decision Virginia. If you can't trust Moran to keep his word on debate rules, how can you trust him to keep his word as the Democratic Nominee?

Panic, disorder, mayhem - the Moran campaign's work here is almost done.

PPP: McAuliffe leading by double digits

PPP is up with its monthly poll of the Virginia Gubernatorial race. Last month, PPP had Brian Moran up by 2 points, this month Terry's up by 10.

Last week SurveyUSA had McAuliffe up by 16, making this the second poll in as many weeks showing Terry McAuliffe up by double digits.

Lowell has much more.

People from across the Commonwealth and all walks of life are waking up to the sense of Terry's candidacy, and even the most vicious negative attacks from the Moran campaign can't dissuade the voters.

McAuliffe has developed particularly commanding leads among women, African Americans, and voters describing themselves as liberals.

PPP postulates that 60% of the electorate is still up for grabs, but goes on:

“This is the fourth time PPP has polled this contest and the first time one of the candidates has broken away from the pack,” said Dean Debnam, President of Public Policy Polling. “McAuliffe’s resources advantage finally seems to be manifesting itself and by the time Deeds and Moran can start catching up it may be too late.”

At this point Moran appears to be counting on a low-turnout primary in order to keep voters from the polls. His ongoing negative attacks against the Terry McAuliffe aren't driving up his numbers, and are, in fact, having no effect in driving up McAuliffe's negatives, which actually ticked DOWN in this survey.

McAuliffe saw a strong increase in his positive name recognition over the last month, going from a 32/29 favorability spread to a 42/25 one.

Since Brian Moran, his campaign and supporters seem congenitally incapable of listening to criticism, the only question now is whether the Moran campaign will go nuclear with their attacks on Terry McAuliffe. In fact, it's more a question of when.

Moran Bad News Roundup

Brian Moran's despicable campaign is beginning to reap what they've sewn. On the heels of a campaign of hypocritical attacks, outright lies, and despicable personal political retribution, the Moran campaign is beginning to be exposed.

The press picked up on Moran's unprecedented negativity at this week's candidate's debate in Blacksburg.

I’ve covered a lot of debates. Rarely are there real fireworks or knock out punches. Usually, candidates are coached to be reserved, to show little personality, take few chances, and do no harm. Generally, it’s the easiest way to survive the debate. Apparently, Brian Moran didn’t get this memo.

Now, let’s be clear… all three candidates threw some punches. But, none as hard or as often as Moran. At one point he and McAuliffe were in a shouting match over, of all things, negative campaigning. Then Moran took it to an entirely new level when he used his ENTIRE closing statement to attack McAuliffe. He closed with two sentenc[es] saying he’s the strongest in the race. That’s it. Nothing else about him or his record. Just an all out attack on a fellow Democrat. And, the attack wasn’t on the issues. Instead his criticisms focused almost exclusively on more personal issues of McAuliffe’s business dealings, leadership style, and campaign tactics. It was the most negative closing statement I have ever seen.

Jeff Shapiro ridicules Moran's leftward fakes and radical attacks:

Then there's Brian Moran. When he's not trashing McAuliffe, Moran is moving further and further to the left. This suggests a couple of things: that McAuliffe really is ahead, or that Moran is really desperate. Either way, it's clear Moran is gambling the primary will attract only hard-core Democrats; you know, "liberals." So to attract the greens, Moran is against the coal-powered electric generator in Surry County. And to attract gays, Moran is promising to overturn the constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. These positions won't help Moran in a general election against Republican Bob McDonnell. Maybe Moran is making it up as he goes along. Not a sign of a seasoned candidate.

Meanwhile, WaPo picks up on Moran's hypocritical attacks on Creigh Deeds marriage equality record.

In 2004, Moran cast a vote in favor of a resolution sponsored by now Republican nominee Bob McDonnell that encouraged the U.S. Congress to adopt an amendment to the federal constitution banning both gay marriages and civil unions. The voting history on the resolution, a companion to a senate resolution sponsored by now attorney general candidate Sen. Ken Cuccinelli, is complex.

Moran had three opportunities to vote on the issue during the 2004 legislative session. Once, the General Assembly's records showed that he did not vote. Next, he voted against the resolution. But on the last vote, on March 10, 2004, he voted for the idea.

Laughably, Moran's Spokesman Jesse Ferguson claims that Moran's vote was wrongly recorded, despite this quote from Moran at the time:

Those of us that are uncomfortable with the state recognizing a gay marriage would have difficulty not supporting the resolution.

Virginia Democrat sums up Moran's campaign implosion:

What was Brian Moran thinking when he attacked Creigh on this issue?

In fact, that is the wrong question to ask at this point. There are many things like this in the Moran record, such as: Moran's vote for an unconstitutional restriction on abortion in 2003, even though his website claims he has never supported an unconstitutional restriction on choice; His advocacy of clean coal technology during an interview in Southwest Virginia; His vote in favor of the Wise coal plant even as he asserted a moral superiority ground in his opposition to the Surry one; his early criticism of Terry McAuliffe's out-of-state fundraisisng, even though Moran had done the same thing; and now, a checkered record on gay marriage (not to mention the bullshit excuse tossed by his communications director to try to bamboozle a reporter) even as he has the gall to tell another candidate he will be "held accountable" for his record.

In each of these cases, Moran supporters have either attacked the messenger seeking to bring his record to light or sought to minimize the damage through excuse-making -- it was only one vote, it was a long time ago, nobody cares anymore, blah, blah, blah.

At what point are there enough of these incidents that a pattern emerges, one that tells us that Brian Moran is simply not ready and not qualified to be the Democratic Party nominee for Governor?

Despite the fact that I was the target of a campaign of political retribution when I endorsed his opponent, it's still just sad to see a great Virginia Democrat like Brian Moran led so pitifully astray by a failed campaign. The man may not deserve to fail, but the campaign most certainly does. Still, in the immortal words of our Senator Jim Webb, "the fish rots from the head down". So it goes.

Moran's Astonishing Negativity

If you watch last night's Gubernatorial Debate, one thing that will simply jump off the screen is the endless stream of negative attacks and whining complaints issuing from the mouth of candidate Brian Moran.

The main focus of the attacks was Terry McAuliffe, but he had some choice words for Creigh Deeds as well on the issue of marriage equality.

Even the heavily Moran-organized twitter crowd was astonished by Moran's negativity, two thirds picked Moran as the more negative on a twitter poll.

Brian Moran has spent two years campaigning for this office and he has still failed to pull together a central message. In the absence of a coherent communications plan, he has fallen back on vicious attacks and whining complaints. It's very disappointing for those of us who began this election cycle with high hope for Moran, but who have been truly disgusted by the vicious negativity of his flagging campaign.