Political Dispatches: Bob McDonnell vs. Harry Reid

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's recent embrace of the public option for health care reform surprised some and delighted others. The timing is curious. Just maybe, the Nevada Democrat decided the moment -- eight days before the off-year elections -- was right to back government health insurance before Bob McDonnell lays it to rest for good.

By backing the public option so publicly, Reid gained points with his party's left wing. That might make things easier for him when he's forced to dump it later this year -- if not later next month.

Should Virginia GOP gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell and his running mates win as decisively on Tuesday as polls suggest they will, it's bound to frighten plenty of moderate Democrats, including the commonwealth's own Jim Webb and Mark Warner.

Both parties will spin a big McDonnell win for their own purposes -- it has already begun, perhaps the most convincing evidence that Deeds is a goner -- but Democratic senators concerned about their own re-elections will certainly be swayed by a rapid reversal in Virginia, a state Barack Obama carried comfortably just one year ago.

McDonnell is proving that a pragmatic conservative can run well in a purple state, especially when voters are worried about rising taxes and overreaching government.

McDonnell's first major policy accomplishment may well be national in scope -- driving a stake into the heart of the public option.

-- Bob Rayner