Morning Read: Virginia GOP Defensive After Obama's “Horses and Bayonets” Debate Comment

President Obama’ memeworthy “horses and bayonets” comment at Monday’s debate did more than just ruffle Romney and provide a laugh during an otherwise dry debate.

Virginia, specifically Hampton Roads, is home to the world’s biggest naval base and Republican pundits and politicians in the state came to Romney’s defense after the comment.

Republican Senate candidate George Allen issued a press release headlined “A Shrinking Military Is Not a Joke." Democrat Tim Kaine issued a statement that neither supported nor rejected Obama’s comment, instead he said that he would “work with both parties to continue strategic investments” in the military. Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell said the president’s dismissive comments about the Navy “should be concerning for any voter who cares about the safety and security of Americans at home and abroad.”

But, according to the Post, the jab failed to anger anyone who actually lived in Hampton Roads.

In more than a dozen interviews, shipbuilders and Navy families — Republicans and Democrats alike — mostly said Obama was just stating the obvious: Numbers aren’t the whole story when it comes to naval power. “Some of the things we put out in the water can do what two ships used to do,” said Arthur Fladger, 55, a nuclear refueler at Newport News Shipbuilding.

Despite this, Bearing Drift—a right-leaning Virginia politics blog—said that if Obama weren’t already losing Virginia, the comment could have very well cost him the state.

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