McCain Camp on the “Fake Virginia”

Sun, October 19, 2008 - 6:56 PM

Despite the fact more than fourth of the state's voters live in Northern Virginia (and the fact John McCain lives there, too) the McCain campaign can't stop vilifying the state's fast growing D.C. suburbs. Numerous Republican activists and elected officials have criticized the Virginia GOP for its failure to embrace NoVa voters and therefore give themselves huge deficits to overcome down state during elections.

McCain was in Woodbridge, Va. Sunday. Read The Richmond Times-Dispatch's account of McCain's weekend campaign stop in Northern Virginia.

After his brother Joe McCain called the Northern Virginia cities "communist country," another campaign surrogate added a new insult this weekend. On MSNBC, a senior adviser to McCain said the region is not "real Virginia."

From the Richmond report:

"The rest of the state, real Virginia, if you will, I think will be very responsive to Senator McCain's message," Nancy Pfotenhauer said in acknowledging McCain's challenges in the most populous part of the state.

Given a chance to retract her statement, Pfotenhauer said she lives in Oakton, in Fairfax County, "but real Virginia I take to be the -- this part of the state that is more Southern in nature, if you will. Northern Virginia is really metro D.C."

--Neil Simon