Virginia Republican Bob McDonnell Distances Himself from Grad School Thesis

ABC News' Teddy Davis Reports: Bob McDonnell, the Republican candidate for governor of Virginia, distanced himself on Monday from some of the conservative views he expressed in a thesis he wrote 20 years ago when he was a graduate student at Pat Robertson’s Regent University. In a 90-minute conference call with reporters, McDonnell offered a point-by-point explanation of his current views, saying that he now supports women in the workplace, the sale of contraception, no-fault divorce, and non-marital civil rights for gays and lesbians. “I know Senator Deeds has got to try to make some controversy out of this. He’s behind in the polls,” said McDonnell, referring to his Democratic opponent. “You know why? [People] don’t care about a 20-year-old thesis. They care about what am I telling them today. What I have actually done for jobs, opportunity, and free enterprise and what am I going to do as governor. And that’s what people care about.” As first reported by the Washington Post on Sunday, McDonnell's thesis, which was written when he was 34, depicts feminism as an enemy to the traditional family; says government policy should benefit married couples over "cohabitators, homosexuals, or fornicators”; and criticizes a Supreme Court decision establishing a legal right to contraception for unmarried couples. Read McDonnell's full thesis here. Democrats are hoping to regain the upper-hand in Virginia, one of two states that will choose a new governor in November of this year, by highlighting the conservative views on family policy that McDonnell expressed in a 1989 thesis written while pursuing a law and master's degree. "It has the potential to change the dynamic of the race," said Mo Eleithee, a senior adviser to Democratic gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds, on a separate conference call with reporters. "This is not just an academic exercise as the McDonnell campaign would have us believe. This paper serves as a blueprint for governing." "Fifty-four percent of Virginians are women. This thesis includes a full-on assault of women in the workplace. I think that is going to be a huge concern to women," Eleithee added. The Deeds attack on McDonnell was amplified Monday in an e-mail message sent to Democrats by Virginia Gov. and Democratic National Committee chairman Tim Kaine. Referring to the Washington Post story about McDonnell's thesis, Kaine writes, "As you will see, this political blueprint contains unflattering references to working women, gays and lesbians, and many others. It also contains references to policy positions – such as opposition to contraception and child care availability – that most Virginians would find quite troubling." When pressed about his views on women, McDonnell maintained that he was “simply doing an academic analysis” of social changes that took place in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s when large numbers of women moved into the workforce and pointed to the women who served in senior positions when he was Virginia’s attorney general. As someone with a daughter who fought in the Iraq war in 2005 when McDonnell squared off against Deeds for attorney general, McDonnell said he was “insulted” by the suggestion that he does not support women in the workforce. "For me to have my daughter over in Iraq, flying around in a Blackhawk, dodging bullets in a convoy when we were running against each other in 2005, and for my daughters to be encouraged by me to gain master's degrees — for him to suggest that I somehow don't support women in the workplace is insulting," said McDonnell. ABC News' Elizabeth Gorman contributed to this report.