Let’s begin here: we know, respect and like Corey as a person and politically, his accomplishments are laudable. We’re also aware of those running his campaign and aside from their previous alliances with the very Ted Cruz campaign that Stewart fought against during the presidential campaign where they stole Trump delegates, the campaign’s direction is confounding at best.

For the last few weeks, Stewart’s campaign has wrapped him in this cause to save Confederate monuments of historical importance.

WTF…?

Republican candidate for governor Corey Stewart spoke at the Old South Ball in Danville on Saturday night, surrounded by more Confederate flags than you could shake a saber at. With one massive flag hanging above him, and apparently in period clothing, the hyperbolic chairman of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors promised to protect Confederate monuments in the state with his life.
— Daily Press, 4/9/17

Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson’s views on slavery was somewhere best not to go, let alone defend in a campaign setting.

The blacks are immeasurably better off here than in Africa, morally, socially and physically. The painful discipline they are undergoing, is necessary for their instruction as a race, and I hope will prepare and lead them to better things. How long their subjugation may be necessary is known and ordered by a wise Merciful Providence.
— Robert E. Lee, to Mary Anna Lee, December 27, 1856

Jackson neither apologized for nor spoke in favor of the practice of slavery. He probably opposed the institution. Yet in his mind the Creator had sanctioned slavery, and man had no moral right to challenge its existence.
— James I. Robertson, Jr., Alumni Distinguished Professor in History, Virginia Tech

And of course when the predictable blowback came from the left and their media, the campaign uploads and shares their signature, amateurish (for what should be a multi-million dollar campaign with national implications), shaky vertical video in the wimpish attempt to make a strong candidate look like a victim of liberal bullies: a victim of multiple campaign-inflicted wounds.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Corey Stewart came to this town to defend its statue of Robert E. Lee in a downtown park, only to be swarmed by dozens of protesters who shouted him down everywhere he went. It was the harshest reception yet for the provocative chairman of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors, who is campaigning for the GOP nomination for governor as Virginia’s Donald Trump, with a hard-line stance against illegal immigration.
— Washington Post, 2/11/17

Gubernatorial candidate Corey Stewart came to denounce City Council’s decision to remove the statue of General Robert E. Lee, bringing with him Thaddeus Dionne Alexander, who became a social media sensation for telling Hillary Clinton supporters to “stop being crybabies.” Stewart was met by protesters shouting, “Hey hey, ho ho, white supremacy’s got to go,” and his campaign described them as “an aggressive mob of liberal protesters.”
— C-Ville, 2/15/17

The problem with a campaign run by millennials is that while they may have ready access to Wikipedia and can look something up when a topic arises, they generally have no frame of reference for anything that happened prior to their existence on the planet.

Had ONE of them spent five minutes on The Dixiecrat Myth, they’d know that Confederate history IS Democrat history. Stewart’s current mission of “stopping historical vandalism” is something best left to people who actually were born in Virginia and may have had relatives who were on either side during the Civil War.

As Corey Stewart is from Duluth, Minnesota, what dog does he have in this fight?

“They’re blaming this Confederate flag issue, but they’re not following this race very carefully,” Stewart said in a telephone interview with the Times Sunday.

“Because this is not about the Confederate flag,” Stewart continued. “It’s about out-of-control political correctness that shames people for celebrating their ancestry and their heritage.”
— Prince William Times, 4/23/17

Granted, Civil War history/heritage is American history/heritage but in making these statements, he’s failed to remind Virginians that the Confederate flag was also THE symbol of the Democrat Party, thus purging the Commonwealth of these symbols is the ongoing liberal whitewash of their murderous legacy of slavery, Jim Crow, their Klan, lynchings, voting rights suppression; the list goes on.

Is that Stewart’s fault? Maybe. Is it his campaign’s fault for not providing him the necessary political context? Definitely.

In a gubernatorial campaign with national implications, ignorance is no excuse and the optical results of this political incompetence is glaring. Democrats salivate at the opportunity to Photoshop a Republican with a Confederate flag. Stewart’s campaign has given them many freebies.

Trump’s Former Virginia Chair Goes Full-On Racist Confederate in Bid for Governor
“Inspired by Trump, his former Virginia chair runs the ‘most openly Confederate-friendly campaign in recent memory’”
— PoliticusUSA, 3/29/17

In politics, optics are everything. Who in a sane campaign would allow such ammunition to be stockpiled in the first place? People have been fired from high-profile campaigns for far less.

Every Republican in the nation who runs for anything knows at some point the Democrats will call that Republican a racist, yet Stewart’s campaign appears to have stupidly invited and embraced the label for their candidate. And the bleeding has become a gush.

A group of four Prince William County Supervisors, along with the County Sheriff, are endorsing Ed Gillespie in the race to become the Republican candidate in Virginia’s gubernatorial race. They’ve chosen Gillespie over their own colleague on the Board of Supervisors, Chairman Corey Stewart.

“It’s become very difficult to defend Corey Stewart’s message and actions as he wraps himself in the Confederate Flag,” Supervisor Martin Nohe (R-Coles) told WMAL.
— WMAL, 4/24/17

We’re not the ones making a big deal over the debacle that has visually overtaken Stewart’s campaign. We’re not the ones who told Corey this is a winning issue even though we can’t remember ONE Republican who’s ever won an election embracing the Confederate flag. While we all know he isn’t a white supremacist racist, Stewart’s campaign has given Democrats and establishment Republicans a massive club to beat the candidate who has beaten Democrats easily in the past, which is exactly why this gift was so politically unnecessary.

What a whining little b**** this guy is. Just remember a few things as you watch this pathetic video by Corey Stewart: 1) this is the same guy, born and raised in Minnesota by the way, who’s been waging a neo-Confederate campaign, who just a couple weeks ago proclaimed his pride for the Confederate flag at the “Old South Ball” in Danville, Virginia, and who is now claiming it’s “not about the Confederate flag” after all; 2) Corey’s getting his butt kicked by all metrics – polls, fundraising, straw polls, you name it – by Ed Gillespie; and 3) most recently, Corey was rejected by four of his fellow Republican Prince William County Supervisors, plus Prince William County’s Sheriff, all of whom endorsed Ed Gillespie for Governor over him. So now, it’s all about the “far left” and a war on Virginia’s “identity” and the “bondage” of “political correctness,” which he vows to “stomp out” and “destroy” because it’s “not something that belongs in a free society.” Yeah, the guy’s a Virginia Republican all right…
— Blue Virginia, 4/23/17

With all of his accomplishments, the CONFEDERATE FLAG is the last thing that Corey Stewart should be talking about in the race for the governorship of Virginia. This topic should have been avoided when it came up and left to the locals to hammer out. Despite all the pics taken of Stewart lately with the flag and locals, did anyone think about how those visceral optics would appear to black people, especially the senior-most elected black Republican in the Commonwealth?

Today, I am pulling my endorsement of Corey Stewart for Governor. He is a friend but his campaign has become more focused on division, rather than the unifying values and the history of the Republican Party. I now support Ed Gillespie to be our next Governor.
— Prince William Sheriff Glenn Hill

“… his campaign”.

Stewart has significantly reduced the number of criminal illegal aliens without the Confederate Flag. Stewart has reduced taxes as At-Large Chairman of the Board of Supervisors of Prince William County without the Confederate flag, but what are his enemies (Democrat and Republican) talking about? The symbol of Democrat racism he appears to have embraced, at least in the all-important optics.

And let’s just say, for shits and giggles, that Corey Stewart wins the primary. Do you think the media: local, state, and national will be talking about his record and/or his positions? It will be about the optics of a Republican and the Confederate flag. We’ll be reminded of Dylann Roof going into a church, gunning down nine black people, and a pic of him next to… the Confederate flag. And if you think the Democrats won’t use these optics against Corey Stewart, you’re naive.

How he recovers with an indefensible campaign position is unclear, but this is still his campaign to lose. Both sides are trying to take him out.

Corey Stewart and his campaign shouldn’t be helping them.

UPDATE

Corey Stewart ultimately lost his bid for Virginia governor.

Establishment candidates prevailed in Virginia’s gubernatorial primaries Tuesday, with Ed Gillespie squeaking by Corey Stewart for the Republican nomination while Ralph Northam had an easier path to the Democratic nomination, defeating Tom Perriello.
— NBC4, 6/13/17

And Gillespie eventually lost to Northam giving us another Democrat governor.

Sadly, some of us could see this coming. Stewart’s paid campaign staff did not and many have comfortably moved on to infect other Virginia campaigns. But, what else is new?

Imagine the ego it took to write “Obamacare Critics Still Tell Just One Side of the Jobs Story” while plotting to deceive and destroy the health care coverage of millions of individuals and families.

In listening to “Health Economist” Jonathan Gruber’s presentation of the “agenda” at the University of Pennsylvania, the arrogance is quite disturbing and the question that most comes to mind is… “Who elected YOU?”

“What’s been great about this process is that it’s been a fairly intellectually honest process,” said Gruber.

Turns out it was a good day to check in with Gruber. Of course, lined up on the other side, we have the entreaties of millions of misinformed, Bible-banging suckers, so there’s that.
— A Brief Interlude With Expert Opinion, Esquire Magazine, 9/26/13

This progressive educator (and his family) is probably having a very bad last few days and deservedly so. The truth always comes out and there can be a reckoning.

B&R Flashback: ObamaCare: DEFUND, Not Repeal

This must be done. What’s sad is that Gruber has more balls than some of the Republicans now in charge.

For example, one reason many of us are weaning ourselves off Fox News is, like a lot of so-called conservatives, they cater to a right-leaning audience while behaving another way behind their closed doors.

Flashback: Closeted Fox News anchor attends gay fundraiser
Fox News anchor Shepard Smith on Thursday refused reporters’ requests to ask him about his sexual orientation during a National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association fundraiser. Blade Editor Kevin Naff outed Smith in 2005 after Smith hit on him in a Manhattan bar. That incident was featured in the documentary film “Outrage;” he recounted the experience earlier this month.

NLGJA invited Smith as a “special guest” to attend the annual Manhattan fundraiser. He appeared in a selfie with CNN anchors Don Lemon and Ashleigh Banfield, MSNBC host Ronan Farrow, Fox News anchor Jamie Colby, “Good Morning America” correspondent Amy Robach, who emceed the event, and others.

And let’s not forget that Fox News is an annual Silver Sponsor for some National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association events:

NLGJA is an organization of journalists, media professionals, educators and students working from within the news industry to foster fair and accurate coverage of LGBT issues.

Is it “fair and balanced” to make sure any group gets news coverage they deem “accurate”?

Let’s not also forget how much Fox News had dumbed-down their content over the last few years. They may be winning the ratings war but only because their competition is ever harder to digest.

Then you have Haley Barbour running one of the most shameful tactics ever deployed against fellow Republicans….

It turns out that former Republican Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour’s pro-Cochran Super PAC, Mississippi Conservatives, shelled out $44,000 for an offensive robocall urging black Democrat voters to vote for Thad Cochran in the Republican primary Tuesday.

In the radio spot, the narrator urges listeners to vote for Cochran and laments in part,

“By not voting, you are saying ‘take away all of my government programs, such as food stamps, early breakfast and lunch programs, millions of dollars to our black universities’… everything we and our families depend on that comes from Washington will be cut.”

And Senator Cochran has now been tied to an unscrupulous liberal hitwoman….

The Cochran supporters’ arrangement with Mitzi Bickers is especially notable, given the role of racial politicking generally and of one sketchy robo-call in particular that raised the ire of tea-party voters as the race drew to a close. Near the end of the runoff campaign, a recording came to light — it was first reported by investigative reporter Charles Johnson – of a racially tinged call that urged voters to combat the Tea Party by casting a ballot for Cochran. It accused the Tea Party of “disrespectful treatment of the country’s first African-American president.” The Cochran campaign has denied any connection to the call, and Barbour says the call was not from the Mississippi Conservatives PAC or from Bickers. He believes, he says, that Bickers placed two automated calls to African-American households.

Bickers retired from public service in June of last year after Atlanta’s WSB-TV reported that, while serving as Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed’s director of human services, she failed to include on a financial-disclosure report, filed under penalty of perjury, thousands of dollars she had earned in political-consulting work.

Of course, while Republicans could be bothered to suck up to us, they have no problem sucking up to those who are the center of problems around the world.

Nicer words could never be said while those he’s speaking so well of are busy slaughtering opponents and innocents by the daily hundreds.

Maybe they’ll vote Republican….

After lunch, Laura and I caught him in the parking lot and asked him (as a matter of proper messaging) if he could get out front and not continue to say “repeal” but “defund” because, if you really want to be accurate, Mitt Romney was the only person who could have repealed it.

Republicans are now going around the country talking about “repeal” but let’s be real: if a Republican House and Senate sent a bill repealing the ACA to Barack Obama, we all know he’d veto it and blame everyone in the room for days.

As I told the candidate, we Republicans should run on, win, and then send a bill to Obama with no money going to ObamaCare. We wonder if the president would be so eager to shut down the government over a piece of legislation that helped put his opposition into the majority? Public opinion may not be on his side, especially when all the little post-midterm ObamaCare goodies kick in.

Also, if the GOP runs on “repealing” ObamaCare and can’t do it (while knowing they couldn’t before the election), aren’t we making a promise we can’t keep and doesn’t that make us no better than Democrats?

Either way, we’re not falling for the “repeal” ObamaCare trap recited by the unthinking.

“Defund” is the ONLY way to go.

UPDATE: That Senate candidate was Ed Gillespie. Not to just single him out, Mark Levin repeated the incorrect “repeal” line last night (11/10/14) as well.