I’d say deal, but how do we get from here to there on say the abortion issue where the Supreme Court has imposed a radical abortion regime through ROE and CASEY (only slightly moderated by (CARHART)? That doesn’t mean all kinds of state-level political activism isn’t a good idea, but getting the federal government out of the issue (other than in those cases where federal policy is inescapable) would require a major political triuph at the federal level (though a true minimization of the federal power over abortion policy would also mean the repeal of the federal ban on partial birth abortion.)

Same thing with McDonnell’s thesis. McDonnell has had a family and public service life since writing the thesis. He could tell a plausible story about how his views have changed, that he has supported women’s professional careers within his own family and in pro-jobs laws he has supported and that the real threat to women’s careers is the persistent high unemployment of the Obama years. So of that would be spin (fingers will be pointed at who is responsible for what in the employment situation), but a lot of it is also fact and context. I’m pretty confident that McDonnell could explain himself satisfactorily to the persuadable fraction of the population. He has done just fine with swing-voter Virginians who have heard a lot about this issue. I’d be a lot less comfortable if it was Sharron Angle.