Vote for substance over smooth style

If elections were determined by “silver tongued oration” or “handsome good look,” it’s doubtful Abraham Lincoln would have ever become president of the United States. Lincoln was called a “Kentucky backwoods bumpkin” and worse — but his strength of character and intelligence had greater appeal and prevailed.
He earned the moniker “Honest Abe” from truth and sincerity. We, as a nation, are eternally grateful.
Now we are engaged in a gubernatorial election in Virginia where a “country ‘yokel’ from Bath County” is opposing a handsome, well-spoken opponent.
But if we look beyond the superficialities, we see a super-slick campaign by that opponent that is full of empty promises and more of what I would call “Gilmore-lite,” the usual litany of doing miraculous works on the cheap and not costing the taxpayers a dime. We have heard it all before.
Playing Whac-A-Mole with the budget, so cuts in education, social services and the important needs of the commonwealth yield the bucks to provide for the promises to the big guys … we have heard all that before, too.
Gov. Jim Gilmore cut the hated car tax all right, but left a huge unfilled hole in the budget and then played three-card monte by holding back tax refunds to give the illusion of money in the treasury. And guess what? Candidate Bob McDonnell supported virtually everything Gilmore proposed and carried out.
When Gov. Mark Warner came into office, the commonwealth had a billion-dollar budget shortfall, and the state was threatened with losing its coveted AAA credit rating and its coveted record as the best location for business.
Since Virginia cannot have a budget out of balance, serious efforts had to be made, and quickly, to set the commonwealth back on an even keel. In spite of legislator Bob McDonnell’s opposition to Gov. Warner’s efforts, the governor succeeded and Virginia retained its AAA credit rating and its best-business-environment standing, and received a bipartisan accolade calling Virginia the best managed state in the Union.
Yes, Bob McDonnell wins on good looks and a silver tongue, and if that is what makes the business of the state succeed by all means, he is your man.
I’ll take the “yokel”!

Harry A. Tenney
Charlottesville