Is WaPo trying to 'Macaca' Bob McDonnell?

Item number one on the Macaca Watch is the Sunday front page story on the thesis Bob McDonnell wrote in 1989 at Regent University where he obtained a masters degree in public policy and a law degree. This is, as the story acknowledged, a publicly available document and its contents would certainly be a legitimate part of an article on McDonnell's background and the evolution of his political views. But the first paragraph of the story, prominently on the front page, sends the culturally liberal voters of Northern Virginia in the Post's local circulation area a pretty clear message: you better not vote for this guy. He went to an "evangelical" school (Regent University Law School), described feminists as "detrimental" and "said government policy should favor married couples over ‘cohabitors, homosexuals or fornicators.'"  
             
Item number two on the Macaca watch is Tuesday's front page story headlined "Governor's Race Erupts Over McDonnell's Past View." The "eruption" consists of a bunch of emails sent out by Democrats quoting from McDonnell's thesis and a McDonnell conference call with reporters answering questions-pretty routine campaign stuff, hardly front page material.

And the Post's efforts are not resonating:

Is the Washington Post "obsessive compulsive" on the subject of old college
papers? Well, only for Virginia Republicans.

So far, despite the Post's best efforts, Bob McDonnell still leads by 9
points, and 49 percent of Virginia voters think college term papers aren't
important in the election.