It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of Bob McDonnell’s comfortable win in the race for governor of Virginia—not because it necessarily portends a GOP sweep in the 2010 midterms, but because it serves as a model for conservative and Republican victories in battleground states across the country. McDonnell’s election last night—and his impressive coattails—are the product of personality and philosophy. McDonnell triumphed, in a state that Barack Obama carried by 6 percentage points, by running as an unabashed conservative—but never an angry conservative.

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.

Creigh Deeds likes to remind people that he’s a fast closer. After all, he zoomed from last place back in June to score an easy victory in the Democratic primary for governor, topping two formidable opponents. And four years ago, he was trailing Bob McDonnell in the final weeks of the campaign for attorney general, only to lose to the Republican by a mere 360 votes.

When it comes to political punditry, Northern Virginia, Hampton Roads, and Metro Richmond seem to get all the attention. That’s not entirely surprising. It’s where the votes are, after all. But not all the votes. Western Virginia might make the difference in this year’s race for governor—especially the 6th Congressional District, which includes much of the Shenandoah Valley (I-81 runs through the middle of the district like a spine), and the 9th, which encompasses the commonwealth’s entire southwestern panhandle.

Summer fades and sweet autumn approaches, with its promise of crystal blue skies, dry air, and full workweeks unsullied by uninterrupted stretches of sunlit leisure. Life is full of tradeoffs. The consequences of swapping sports shirts for sweaters, lightning bugs for leaves of many colors, baseball for football, and long days for mild evenings depends entirely upon one’s personal preferences and prejudices. Fall, as with all others, is a mixed blessing. It is perhaps most reassuring in that it always arrives as expected, utterly predictable but a surprise nevertheless—even after a half-century of witness to the cooling of the Earth.

Who are these crazy people claiming the $787 billion stimulus bill hasn’t worked? It already achieved its main objective: a bigger federal government for you and me. And we’ve only just begun. The Obama 10-Year Plan (also called the federal budget), the Obama Healthy Government Initiative (usually referred to as health care reform in the ministries of propaganda formerly known as newsrooms), and the Heroic Obama Save the Planet Now Scheme (Cap’n Trade) could one day combine to make government in America nearly as large as the private economy.

Editor’s Note: Here’s a sample from Political Dispatches, the paper’s weekly e-mail newsletter. Polls in the gubernatorial race don’t mean much at this stage, other than to confirm that both candidates have a reasonably good chance of winning. Competitive campaigns don’t always stay that way, as demonstrated by Republican Jim Gilmore in 1997, when what began as an even match with Don Beyer turned into a landslide for the GOP. Still, the odds are that we’re in for a close contest in November.

• Editor’s Note: Here’s a sample from Political Dispatches, the paper’s weekly e-mail newsletter. To subscribe, see the ad on this page.

Reports about the death of conservatism in America may be greatly exaggerated, at least according to a poll released by Gallup last week that—big surprise—didn’t generate a lot of interest in the mainstream media. Gallup, perhaps the most respected and unbiased polling organization in the country, found that self-identified conservatives outnumber liberals by a 2-1 margin. Forty percent of Americans describe themselves as conservative, compared with 21 percent who say they are liberal. Another 35 percent label themselves as moderate.

• Editor’s Note: Here’s a sample from Political Dispatches, the paper’s weekly e-mail newsletter. To subscribe, see the ad on this page.

Terry McAuliffe’s coronation as the Democratic nominee for governor may be postponed—if not imperiled. A pair of polls in the past few weeks shows the former Democratic national chairman—and self-professed best friend of Bill Clinton—trailing former Del. Brian Moran by 4 to 5 percentage points. State Sen. Creigh Deeds runs third in both surveys.

Bold prediction No. 1: The recession is over. Not-quite-as-bold prediction No. 2: We won’t find out that the recession is over until early next year. In spite of all the mistakes the government has made, is making, and will make, one of the oldest economic aphorisms will prove once again to be accurate: Never fight the Fed. The Federal Reserve has been flooding the economy with cheap money for more than a year now. And the best predictor of future economic performance—the yield curve—is flashing bright green.

The financial crisis, and the recession it spawned, have created much confusion and uncertainty across the land. The causes of the downturn are hotly debated—and spun for political advantage. Solutions have, so far, remained elusive. Perhaps we can gain a bit of clarity by identifying what did not cause the downturn.

Barack Obama is an honest man. He promised change that would shake the heavens. The American voters endorsed his vision and handed him a resounding mandate to go forth and shatter the many weak institutions of mere mortals. And he intends to deliver. Who would have guessed—even a year ago—that mortgage brokers passing out easy money, that families moving into four-bedroom homes years before they dreamed, that Wall Street CEOs admiring stout profits and soaring bonuses, that Republicans pushing the American dream deeper into the populace were in fact creating a great storm that would allow one man the power to create an entirely new economy—an economy directed not by the emotional and unreliable masses but by a highly educated, coolly calculating, visionary elite elected by their fellow citizens to fix this mess.

Thousand-Dollar Candy Bars: Obama’s Dangerous and Deceptive Economic Policy For those of us pondering whether President Barack Obama is—in his heart of hearts—driven mainly by extreme ambition, like most highly successful politicians, or instead by a deep devotion to extreme liberalism, we have received a surprisingly quick and definitive an swer. He is driven by both.