Bob McDonnell's WSJ interview

It was the economy....

Today's Wall Street Journal features an interview with Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell:

Along with New Jersey's Chris Christie, in November [Bob McDonnell] was one of two Republicans elected governor in states that Barack Obama carried a year ago. Mr. McDonnell won by a 17-point landslide and captured independents by a two-to-one margin. Many wonder if his victory is a sign that Republicans will run the table in the upcoming congressional elections.

So how did he win a state that Obama Democrats had thought was part of a permanent national shift to the left? "I ran on Virginia issues," Mr. McDonnell says, "which were jobs and the economy." These were, he says, "far and away" the top issues. Virginia's unemployment rate, 6.6%, is lower than the 10% national average, but it is up sharply from its low of below 3% in 2007.

"In the worst economy in 80 years," says Mr. McDonnell, "it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what we ought to be talking about."

Much of that revealed in the interview is already known by many Virginians but will be new to the national audience of the Wall Street Journal which closed out the interview with this:

As for the damaged Republican brand, one message voters sent with Mr. McDonnell's election is that they don't want the GOP to repeat its mistakes from the past decade. Mr. McDonnell seems to have received that message, saying that it was important for him to run on fiscal issues, because "we've got to hold the line on taxes and we've got to cut spending."

"We've got to hold the line on taxes ... and we've got to cut spending."

We need that at the local level, state, and national levels.

H/T to Ron at Isophorone