That’s what Bill Clinton said about Terry McAuliffe and the Virginia gubernatorial campaign this morning.
Clinton was in town to help out his good friend and former fundraiser.
While the crowd was not nearly the size of audience that he used to draw, Clinton was worth seeing.
He spoke about the importance of governors to the economic recovery and noted that the quality of political leadership in a state can have a genuine impact on the rapidity with which a state comes out of the recession.
He said that McAuliffe’s background as an entrepreneur and a businessman was precisely the right kind of experience that Virginia needs today.
He argued that McAuliffe’s emphasis on creating new “green” jobs was the key to the nation’s economic growth in the future, that the state’s response to how we produce and consume energy would ultimately determine if Virginia is an economic leader or laggard.
And in between the serious comments, he tossed off engaging one liners. My favorite was his definition of the “right kind” of bipartisanship which he asserted was walking across the aisle to reach out to the other side on issues, but not just sitting there and “letting them jack you around.”
McAuliffe followed Clinton with a spirited stump speech, emphasizing his commitment to creating jobs and helping ordinary Virginians. He blasted away at Bob McDonnell for opposing the stimulus dollars for unemployment benefits and for “laughing at” McAuliffe’s commitment to green jobs.
I left the event thinking how it had reinforced the difficulty that I’m having in getting a handle on the Democratic primary.
Here are some impressions.
McAuliffe obviously possesses excellent candidate skills. He’s put a critically important issue- jobs and economic recovery- at the heart of his campaign. He exhibits the kind of energy and enthusiasm that convey a sense that he not only really wants the job, but that he’ll work 18 hours a day if he gets it. And, as one reporter told me, he has far more depth than a background as a fundraiser normally implies.
Yet even with his substantial lead in fundraising and his media savvy, the campaign is still a genuine contest, with the public polls having Moran in the lead.
There is a second story about the event that, I think, helps to explain this.
Curiously, it has nothing to do with what happened.
But it has everything to do with what did not occur.
First, I was struck by the relative absence of Democratic elected officials. The only one who spoke at the event was Richmond City Councilman Marty Jewell.
No senators. No delegates. No local supervisors.
Moreover, the crowd did not include many of the usual attendees at such an event- the Democratic activists who also have positions in state government and who normally can drift away from the office for an hour or two to catch a former President when he comes through town.
Things may be a little different if a rumored endorsement by Bobby Scott actually came to pass.
But for now McAuliffe is not the candidate of the party establishment, especially at the local level. In a relatively low turnout primary election, this constitutes a real challenge.
His success will depend on expanding the Democratic primary electorate, bringing voters to the polls who normally don’t participate in state primaries.
Given his field operation and the skill level in his campaign, I wouldn’t be on InTrade betting against him.
But he’ll have to convince all those undecided voters in the public polls that Bill Clinton is correct and that he offers better ideas and a better chance of beating Bob McDonnell than two candidates who have been involved in Virginia for almost two decades.
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