I've lived in Northern Virginia for 22 years and have seen the rest of the state become a lot more like Northern Virginia. (Thank goodness!). Ten years ago, when I grove to Fredericksburg or Warrenton or Winchester on business, it was like being carried back to ol' Virginny. Now, these places are full of Asians, Arabs, Hindus, Muslims, and all kinds of interesting people who value education and religious tolerance. They are not impressed with his "Iz jes a gud ol boy don't know no nuttin" persona.

The state press ignored Allen's bad behavior (when they weren't fawning over him and his football daddy). I gave out campaign literature several months ago at a local school. I can't tell you how many people - non-white, non-natives mentioned the macacae incident. And they voted!

Perhaps Allen will learn to count votes (the way Strom did) and reform his ways. I'm not getting my hopes up, though.

That never happens...

And he even botched it. Players look at game film exhaustively. Well, good ones do.

You lost because you're you.

Many of us in the great Commonwealth have long known that everything about you -- from the supposed affability to the Reagan-style hair dye to the macho swagger to the cowboy boots -- is as phony as a three dollar bill.

The only thing genuine about you is your hubris and tendency to bully.

Your successor in the governor's office, Jim Gilmore, was an unmitigated disaster, but I'd vote for him before I'd ever vote for you.

Because you're you.

He could have done a better job at what exactly? He lost because more people found out what he's really like.

I suppose he could have done a better job of hiding the truth.

This country would be a much better place without football metaphors in politics.

Actually, football metaphors fit Allen like Spandex pants.

There's college quarterback Allen breaking from the huddle. There he is behind his center, a large black man, bent over in front of him. He starts his rhythmic chant. He looks to his right and sees his tight end, a tall well-built black man, a little farther out, his wide receiver, a very lithe and supple black man. He glances over his shoulder and there's his very squat, solid-looking running back, thighs like sides of beef, another black man.

Red twenty-three! Red twenty-three! Hut, hut, hut, MACACA!

His offensive line collapses in around him before he can complete his two step drop and he is brutally sacked, wrenched from his feet and thrown to the turf and piled on by five extremely large men, all black.

Still need any help figuring out what went wrong, George?

Thanks to whomsoever you believe in that Allen did not know what he was saying when he uttered that famous Macaca. At least that is what he claims. For the country it is better that he has been kicked out now. Can anyone imagine what a macaci president he would have made? An insult to the real Maquaques.

Many of us in the great Commonwealth have long known that everything about you -- from the supposed affability to the Reagan-style hair dye to the macho swagger to the cowboy boots -- is as phony as a three dollar bill.

Yes indeed! And that applies to people in the southwestern part of the state, too, which was supposed to be Allen's stronghold. An article in the October 28 issue of The Nation ("Virginia's Rumbling Rebels") quoted a retired coalminer in Castlewood (~25 miles north of the Tennessee state line) as saying, "George Allen? He's the nearest nothing ever been in this country. He's a big old fake, that's all."

Concluded The Nation about that remark:

If enough Virginians end up agreeing with that assessment, Allen will be in a heap of trouble on November 7. And for all his lack of political panache--in fact, partly because of it--Webb will have pulled off something few thought possible: making the Republican in a Southern race look like the one who's unreal, elitist and out of touch with regular folks.

For a lot of Virginians, it's been looking like that ever since Labor Day. The holiday doubles as the state's annual kickoff for election seasons, and it's long been obligatory for politicians running statewide to appear in the big Laborfest Parade in Buena Vista, not far from the Blue Ridge Parkway. This year was a little different. Jimmy Webb was about to ship out to Iraq and his dad, the antiwar candidate, decided to skip the biggest political day of the year to say goodbye.

"Everybody had heard where Webb was that day, and why," recalls Charley Conrad. "So people are standing there watching the parade, and what do they see coming down the street but George Felix Allen, in a big white ten-gallon hat and those fancy boots he always wears, grinning and waving from atop a brown-and-white horse called--I'm not kidding--Bubba. And all I could think was, I sure hope people are paying attention."

Looks like they certainly were.

> George Felix Allen, in a big white ten-gallon hat and those fancy boots he always wears, grinning and waving from atop a brown-and-white horse called--I'm not kidding--Bubba.

If Allen needs work, he can aways join the Village People. He'd be perfect!

Born and raised in Virginia, now living in Maryland, I am very disappointed in the folks in my native state that the senate race was as close as it was. Webb seemed to be the much better choice, without question, yet nearly half the voters picked the idiot Allen. A previous poster said that Virginia has changed so much in the last decade, but I think that is mostly superficial. Many of the folks that go vote still have deep-seated prejudices (I know, they are my cousins, aunts and uncles) and they were likely delighted with Allen's racist remarks. I believe it will take the deaths of a generation or two of proud rebel rednecks to really turn Virginia around.