"Mudcat" on Webb's Win & Blogs ...

The Washington Post has a column up about the VA Senate race. As you'll see, "Mudcat" believes blogs can (at least on the local level) make a difference electorally:

"No question about it, the bloggers were driving this," says Dave "Mudcat" Saunders, the Roanoke-based backcountry strategist who is helping guide Webb's campaign and who was the mastermind behind Connecticut-born Mark Warner's embrace of NASCAR culture in his run for governor five years ago...

Saunders believes that even if Webb cannot match Allen's staggering $7 million campaign kitty, the challenger has shown that he can use old-fashioned grass-roots word of mouth and newfangled Internet campaigning to spread the word about this ex-Republican military man who wants to bring Reagan Democrats back to the party of their youth.

"We've got the perfect soldier to come out and campaign against George Allen," Saunders says. "In Virginia, combat boots beat cowboy boots every time. If we did it with a Connecticut Yankee, we sure as hell can do it with this guy."

But Webb's strategy is based on the notion that there's a deep well of discontent that need only be tapped to dislodge Allen from his seat.

And in places such as Norton, it's hard to see much in the way of the anger and frustration that lead people to engage in politics.

When I reeled off the big issues in the Senate race to Joyce Payne, she was quick to say, "None of that is what's on people's minds here this week. This is just a time of fun and relaxation. Sometimes you have to just chill and relax; people in Washington should try that. Really, it'll lengthen your life."