What I Meant to Say
Kenneth R. "Ken" Plum
 
        Having two spouses may have its advantages in the cultures that permit it, but it must present challenges as well.  How do you keep both spouses happy, especially when they disagree on issues facing the family?  The tendency may be to tell each spouse what she wants to hear even when they differ.  Certainly in a close family, the one spouse is bound to find out what the other is being told, causing unhappiness and perhaps even a split in the family.
 
        If you can envision the scenario I have just described, you can probably imagine the bind in which Republican candidate for governor Bob McDonnell finds himself.  For months McDonnell has been trying to convince voters that he is just a moderate guy who wants to improve Virginia's economy.  Voters taken in by his clean-cut look, his smooth speaking manner, and the seeming reasonableness of much he has to say were jolted to learn his views on government, family, and society as he expressed in what has become the most read master's thesis this year.  McDonnell at age 32 had a clear view of what he thought society should be like, and he set himself to the task of bringing about that world through his service in the legislature.  For members of the Family Foundation and the most conservative Republican voters, he represented their causes.
 
        For everyone else who is just hearing about the real Bob McDonnell, there is cause for alarm.  How does he think he can get by with declaring that working women and feminists are "detrimental" to the family?  Or that government policies should favor married couples over "cohabitators, homosexuals or fornicators"?  Or that contraception for unmarried couples should be illegal?  To understand the social conservatives' agenda, read McDonnell's thesis that he wrote while a student at Pat Robertson's CBN (Christian Broadcast Network) University, now Regent University, in Virginia Beach.
 
        To moderates it is now clear that McDonnell has been hiding his true views.  In trying to resolve the controversy by saying that some of his views have changed McDonnell is leaving some of his base voters thinking that he is not conservative enough.  As much as it may hurt politically, McDonnell needs simply to come clean with the truth.  He should go through the thesis and tell everyone where he stands today on the points that are in it.  In any event, there appears to be a really big split in the family that he may never be able to repair.