I don’t know how Virginia’s coming gubernatorial race will turn out, but I do know that Terry McAuliffe has run an awful campaign. If he somehow survives, it’ll be solely due to the favorable electoral dynamics in the Northern part of the state, but man is he bad at this.

Case in point? McAuliffe has had no answer for the controversy surrounding parental opposition to school districts that have covered up sexual assault and pushed damaging ideology on children. Instead of siding with parents or at least staking out a middle ground, he proclaimed that parents shouldn’t have a say in their child’s education. He then doubled down, refusing to admit the error in order to smooth things over with voters.

But this latest example truly takes the cake for absolute tone-deafness. Another issue out of Loudoun County has been the availability of books in the library that promote pedophilia and contain pornography. McAuliffe thought it’d be a great idea to call those books “award-winning” while excusing the entire scandal.

Folks, let's take a step back.

Glenn is spending his final days of the campaign focused on banning award-winning books from our schools & silencing the voices of Black authors.

I know we can read between the lines and see these Trumpian dog whistles for what they truly are.

— Terry McAuliffe (@TerryMcAuliffe) October 25, 2021

I won’t post examples of what’s in the books in question here because I have standards when it comes to what I put in my articles, but trust me, it’s really bad, really graphic stuff. On no planet should children be given access to such garbage.

Yet, McAuliffe’s answer to the controversy is to choose to bring it up in order to defend it under the guise of racism. It’s like his political instincts don’t go any further than what leftwing Twitter can produce. You also have to love the mention of “Trumpian” there. This guy has nothing left except saying the word “Trump” over and over in a ridiculous attempt to paint Youngkin as extreme. If the latest polls are any indication, voters aren’t buying it, though.

To put a finer point on McAuliffe’s absurdity, the books that he’s defending were even deemed too “explicit” to be used in a TV ad.

Numerous Virginia high schools’ libraries included books with pornographic content. @IWV created an ad to raise awareness about this issue—but the ad was REJECTED as too explicit to run during the 11 p.m. hour on TV in Virginia.

WATCH our ad here: https://t.co/YKGGo3dwiQ

— Kelsey Bolar (Harkness) (@kelseybolar) October 25, 2021

The issue here that is animating this race, whether McAuliffe wants it to or not, is exactly who has the final say in raising a child. Is it the parents or is it some all-knowing, all-powerful state? McAuliffe has fully endorsed the latter, and it’s the reason he’s struggling. He should be walking away with the race. Instead, he’s tied with a Republican in a state Joe Biden won by 10 points.

And his next move in response to all that was to defend pornography in schools. As they say, “That’s a bold strategy, Cotton. Let’s see how it works out for him.”