Richmiond Times-Dispatch: Congratulations (Webb!)

[brooklynite]

When most Virginians went to bed on election night, George Allen enjoyed a precarious lead. Morning broke with Jim Webb on top. A recount apparently looms, but precedent and common sense establish the Democrat as the presumptive winner. He receives provisional congratulations. Unless a canvass makes major adjustments in the numbers, a recount would seem superfluous and perhaps divisive. Republicans could have soul-searching on the horizon.

Yesterday's editorial -- written with the outcome in deep doubt discussed Iraq's impact. The war trumped everything. Webb's personal biography reassured Virginians distressed by the situation in Iraq that he did not inhabit the left's anti-military fringe. Webb served in the Reagan administration and won medals for heroism in Vietnam. The counterproductive assault on steamy scenes from his fiction (which conservative critics previously had rated among the finest writing the war produced) drew attention to his real-world résumé. The Allen campaign's ploy resembled a football Hail Mary. Desperation passes almost never work; the team throwing them usually loses. Indeed, a Hail Mary carries an implicit concession.

If the lead holds, Webb will move to Washington -- a place he knows from disputatious experience. During the campaign he wandered all over the place on issues. But this was not an issues-based election -- at least not in the sense of issues as the basis for policy papers and sleep-inducing lectures that try to pass off partisan boilerplate as scholarship. This was an election from the gut. Iraq dominated the proceedings. The Democratic sweep translates into a vote of no confidence in the conduct of the war. The citizenry is not always right, yet fealty to democratic principles compelled yesterday's announcement of Donald Rumsfeld's departure.

Virginians do not want clones of John Kerry and Howard Dean. They value independence. Webb's favorite presidents include Andrew Jackson and Ronald Reagan. The blood of Scotland and Ireland coursed through both. One radiated good cheer; the other always seemed ready to fire. Love of country was their legacy. Candidates run as Republicans and Democrats; citizens elect individuals to govern. If Webb remembers that, he will reward Virginia's trust.

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