Glenn Youngkin, lame duck:
No Virginia governor has come into office with a deeper dealmaking background than Glenn Youngkin, who as former co-chief executive of the Carlyle Group made a fortune acquiring and merging companies around the globe.
But as the Republican chief executive of a purple state, Youngkin has struggled to translate that business acumen into political success — or even economic development success, with the demise Wednesday of his much-touted plan to bring the Washington Wizards and Capitals to Alexandria.
While Youngkin and his group of financial experts had negotiated with team owner Ted Leonsis to cut what the governor called “the single largest economic development deal in Virginia’s history,” the governor was never able to work the same magic with members of the General Assembly who had to sign off on the $2 billion project.
The plan’s failure wipes out a significant legacy-making opportunity for a novice politician who burst onto the scene in 2021 and drew national attention as a fresh Republican face. In his first two years in office, Youngkin enjoyed state coffers overflowing with federal pandemic relief funds and a friendly GOP-controlled House of Delegates. But as the clock winds down on his four-year term, the governor has lost the legislature to Democrats and seen his priorities slip away.
“He’s a total lame duck right now,” said Robert Holsworth, a Richmond political analyst who has studied Virginia governors for decades. “He has shown tremendous political inexperience.”
[…]
Amid the national attention and appearances on Fox News and other right-wing media, Youngkin wobbled on the home front. His stoking of culture wars pleased the GOP base but sometimes fizzled as policy, such as abortive efforts to create a tip line for parents to complain about teachers and principals and a rewrite of state history standards that was widely criticized as racially insensitive and inaccurate.
[…]
Despite his success in the private sector, Youngkinas governor has had some noteworthy misses in the economic development realm. He failed to persuade the Biden administration to locate the new headquarters for the FBI in Virginia, with Maryland winning even though the agency itself favored a site in Springfield. And when Ford Motor Co. expressed interest in locating a major battery plant in Southside Virginia to supply electric vehicles, Youngkin himself blocked the deal, citing concern that the operation was a front for a Chinese manufacturer.
The plant went to Michigan instead; the Virginiasite, in a region desperate for jobs, remains unused.
Huh. So you can’t run government like a business after all? A successful businessman isn’t automatically great at politics? Who knew?
I am very glad to see that particular wannabe president sink into obscurity mostly because the Villagers touted him so heavily in 2021 as the Wonderful Moderate Republican Businessman Who Will Save Us All from the Democrats. They spent months pushing the narrative that his election proved that the Democrats were in big trouble and the GOP comeback was imminent (Thank God!) It turns out that he was a lousy politician and an incompetent Governor.
It’s not the first time that’s happened (Scott Walker, Tim Pawlenty, Tommy Thompson, Fred Thompson…. and more) and it would be nice if everyone ignored them when the next great Whitebread Hope comes along.