McDonnell said one “very good case study” of how liberal policies don’t work and how conservative ones do is the dichotomy between his state and Democratic Gov. Martin O’Malley’s Maryland.
“We’re at a 5.9 percent unemployment rate [in Virginia],” McDonnell said. “Maryland is at 7 [percent unemployment]. They’re having to increase taxes, and increasing gambling, they’re doing all kinds of things to feed the spending machine. We’ve been reforming government and cutting spending and so we’ve had $1.4 billion in surpluses over the past three years. It’s a good contrast, and I think it’s a good contrast for what the differences are in an Obama White House versus a Romney White House.”
Above all, though, McDonnell said “the bottom line is: fiscal conservative principles work.”
“At the end of the day, that’s what this election is about,” McDonnell added. “It’s not about personalities, it’s not about who you like the best. It’s about results. Right now, we’ve got a lot of rhetoric in D.C. but no real action. Mitt Romney’s a business guy and he’s all about getting results — and that’s what we need right now.”
McDonnell also expects Romney to win in his Virginia — a major swing state in this election.
“He’s making great progress [in Virginia],” McDonnell said of Romney. “We were down 8 points just about four or five months ago. Now, it’s a dead heat. Actually, a poll or two had him [Romney] up by one. The trend is very good, the enthusiasm gap is on the Republican side unlike four years ago when it was on the Democrats’ side. We’ve got the best grassroots effort that I’ve seen in 21 years in office in terms of the number of phone calls, door-knocks, offices. I think if these trends continue, we’ll win Virginia.”
