Virginia Podcasting Network

After 8 long years of partisan politics and endless discussions of a red-state/blue-state divide in this country, many Americans are anxiously awaiting the end of a presidency defined by fringe politics, one that persistently and systematically moved away from the will of the center. According to historian Gil Troy, great American presidents can be defined by their willingness to move away from partisan extremes to the center. Troy’s new book is called Leading from the Center: Why Moderates Make the Best Presidents. He also explains the concept of a ‘muscular moderate.’

“It’s an ability to compromise while also having core values,” Troy said. “If you look at the greats - Lincoln, Washington, the Roosevelts, Reagan, Kennedy, the ones who were effective - they were able to have a certain sense of their core values, their defining principles, their fundamental beliefs. But at the same time they knew that as leaders of a very complicated country… they had to be nimble and they had to adapt.”

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Ralph Nader defines political activism for many Americans, though many also attribute George W. Bush’s presidency to Nader’s presidential run in 2000. Now, Nader is running again as an independent and will be at the Gravity Lounge on Sunday from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM for a rally. Coy Barefoot spoke with Nader before the event to get a preview of what he’ll be saying this time around. Nader says Wall Street is ruining the country by taking too many risks, and points to the credit crisis as evidence. He also weighs in on the possibility of an Iranian invasion, the oil crisis, and outlines what a Nader presidency would do for the country. (photo by David Shankbone)

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Lowell Feld is the founder and editor of Raising Kaine and the co-author of Net Roots Rising: How a Citizen Army of Bloggers and Online Activists Is Changing American Politics. In this July 7, 2008 edition of WINA’s “Charlottesville–Right Now with Coy Barefoot,” Feld talks about how he got his start online, and why Virginia’s blogosphere is a little different, and predictions on the presidential race.

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On the June 12th edition of WINA’s “Charlottesville–Right Now!” Coy Barefoot talks with Virginia Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling (R) about the upcoming special session on transportation. Bolling summed up the prospects for the special session.

“There’s just no consensus… my fear is we’re going to go there on the 23rd, it’s going to be very short, its going to be very non-productive,” Bolling said., “I just don’t see a consensus building right now, and again it’s always possible that it could happen here in the next few days, but right now it seems highly unlikely.”

Governor Tim Kaine (D) has presented a plan that would increase fees for vehicle registration and increase taxes on car purchases, as well as levy a one cent sales tax increase on residents in Northern Virginia.

Bolling made it clear that he is opposed to such tax increases, stating his view that “there’s never really a good time to raise taxes, but frankly this is a horrible time to raise taxes because of the state of the economy.”

He also painted the Democrats in the General Assembly as out of touch with Virginia voters, arguing that there’s agreement between Republican lawmakers and voters.

“The problem in Richmond is not a lack of money, the problem in Richmond is a lack of fiscal discipline. We’ve got enough money through existing revenue sources to solve our transportation problems if we just use that money for transportation, as opposed to spending it on all of these new and expanded government programs, and the people of Virginia are a step ahead of the members of the General Assembly.”

Bolling outlined his proposals for solving the transportation problem without raising taxes. He said that reserving just 1% of the existing state sales tax for the transportation trust fund would result in approximately $950 million a year for transportation. As an alternative, he mentioned the possibility of requiring 10% of future revenue growth to go towards transportation expenses; he said that if the state had adopted this policy 10 years ago, it would have generated $800 million over the past decade. Bolling also laid out his plan for budget surpluses, arguing that “those budget surpluses are by definition one-time money, I think they should be used to fund one-time things like capital projects, building roads and bridges.”

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The culture wars have distorted the dramatic story of how Americans came to worship freely. Many activists on the right maintain that the United States was founded as a Christian nation. Many on the left contend that the Founders were deists and the advent of the First Amendment proves that church and state should be separated. Author Steven Waldman contends that neither of these claims are true in his new book Founding Faith: Providence, Politics and the Birth of Religious Freedom in America.

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This podcast was originally broadcast on WINA’s Charlottesville–Right Now with Coy Barefoot on April 16, 2008.

Qian Cai is the director of the Demographics and Workforce unit at the Weldon-Cooper Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia. She joined Coy Barefoot on the February 6 edition of WINA’s “Charlottesville–Right Now!” to discuss the Center’s recent study of Virginia’s Hispanic population.

“Virginia’s Hispanic population tripled from 150,000 in 1990 to more than 460,000 in 2006,” Cai said.

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Liz Chadderon of the Chadderdon Group, a political consultant firm, joins Coy Barefoot on WINA’s “Charlottesville–Right Now!” to talk about the Democratic primaries. Chadderdon was surprised with Senator Hillary Clinton’s win in Texas.

“I did predict that [Tuesday] would not decide anything for us, but I have to say I didn’t think it would be that indecisive,” Chadderdon said. “It’s a brand new day in this campaign.” Chadderdon and Coy talk about the effectiveness of negative campaigning, the impact of the Michigan and Florida primaries not counting towards delegate counts, and what it means that Republican Senator John McCain has his party’s nomination outright.

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Delegate Jennifer McClellan (D-71) joins Coy Barefoot on WINA’s “Charlottesville–Right Now!” to discuss the final days of the regular session of the General Assembly. However, McClellan says she thinks the two Houses have to come back into special session to discuss transportation and to pass a budget. Coy also asks McClellan’s thoughts on VDOT’s 44% reduction in road construction funds, the Virginia Supreme Court’s ruling on the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority and her thoughts on the possibility of a gas tax.

“You do not want to balkanize the Virginia transportation system where you’ll have localities that can afford roads have roads, and those that can’t, don’t,” McClellan said.

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Bob Gibson of the Charlottesville Daily Progress joins Coy Barefoot on the February 11 edition to describe what the candidates were up to on the eve of the Virginia presidential primary. Gibson also talks about the passing of former Mayor and Delegate Mitch Van Yahres, Clinton’s question and answer period with Larry Sabato’s class, the Jefferson-Jackson dinner from Saturday, and more.

Coy Barefoot says that Senator John McCain and former President Bill Clinton will both be guests on Newsradio 1070 WINA’s Charlottesville Live program tomorrow morning.

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Super Tuesday might more appropriately be called Super Wednesday. That’s what political analyst Dave Wasserman calls this past week’s election returns, which he says were only beginning to make sense until the day after the primaries and caucuses. Wasserman is the House editor for the Cook Political Report, and he phoned in to the February 6 edition of WINA’s “Charlottesville–Right Now!” to talk about the ascendancy of Senator John McCain, and about the “race for the ages” that is currently going on between Senators Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama.

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