The Virginia blogosphere is buzzing today over what Mike Allen’s Politico Playbook dubbed this morning the “oppo file” on Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell.

Conservative blogs Mason Conservative and Bearing Drift (together with RedState) weigh in, in McDonnell’s defense (no surprise). Blue Virginia (for the moment) simply asks “will today's Washington Post story scare the you-know-what out of Democrats and motivate them to start paying attention to this race?” Of course, my reliably Democratic friend Not Larry Sabato posts this excerpt of the piece under the headline “MCDONNELL IMPLODES!!!!!”

At age 34, two years before his first election and two decades before he would run for governor of Virginia, Robert F. McDonnell submitted a master's thesis to the evangelical school he was attending in Virginia Beach in which he described working women and feminists as "detrimental" to the family. He said government policy should favor married couples over "cohabitators, homosexuals or fornicators." He described as "illogical" a 1972 Supreme Court decision legalizing the use of contraception by unmarried couples....

Thanks, Almunia.  Nothing like letting this happen to endear me to you.

(image from the BBC)

As it stands, Arsenal are 6th in the Premiership behind that powerhouse of a football team... Stoke.

We need to do better.  Let's go...  chop, chop... [intro]

Via Reason, I see that the Boston Globe is arguing "yes" as is the New York Times, while CATO's Michael Cannon is arguing "no" (and some more "no" here). That probably gives conservatives and libertarians an inkling as to where they're likely to come down on the debate, but that aside, as someone who has historically been a big-time critic of RomneyCare, I think it's worth noting Michael Cannon's criticisms of the plan since I don't think it's beyond the bounds of reason to think that President Obama's much sought-after health insurance reform could wind up looking like RomneyCare, at least a little bit. Here's a large excerpt from Cannon's Providence Journal op-ed:

In 2006, Romney enacted a health-reform package strikingly similar to what Democrats are pushing through Congress, including individual and employer mandates, private health-insurance subsidies, broader Medicaid eligibility and a new health-insurance “exchange.” Lately, Massachusetts officials have been forced to raise taxes and cancel some residents’ coverage to pay for it all. Local headlines are decrying “the forbidding arithmetic of health-care reform.” ...