For once, the media is helpful

Normally having an unprincipled media on your side is the wind at your back in an election, but it can backfire if the candidate smokes his own product. Timothy Carney argues that Terry McAuliffe listened to the WaPo's theory that parental concern about education was code for white supremacy and assumed that anything WaPo spouted was bound to work like a charm on undecided independent Virginia voters.

Having the news media as a yes man is dangerous.

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Having the whole news media on your side is often helpful — such as when Joe Biden enjoyed a media blackout on his son’s influence-peddling. But when it convinces you that issues matter that don’t, or that issues don’t matter that do, it’s a handicap.

As Ben Shapiro put it the other day when Juan Williams floated this same theory, "Please, Democrats, make this your platform for 2022. I'm begging you." As a winning campaign message, it's right up there with "CRT doesn't exist--and it's awesome."

I realize McAuliffe hasn't conceded yet, but with so few votes uncounted this morning, I have my fingers crossed that even he and the national machine will judge this one a bridge too far.  if 138,000 D votes suddenly appear from someone's car trunk, another election contest may do them more harm than good nationally, no matter what it gets them in Virginia, especially if the message is "We had to contest this election, because Virginia parents are racist."