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Bob McDonnell on Principles & Values

FactCheck: No, Thomas Jefferson was a Democrat

That's a selective paraphrase of what Jefferson actually said in his first presidential inaugural address. What Jefferson really said in 1801 was: "a wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement."

So Jefferson first said a wise government "shall restrain men from injuring one another," something that could today be taken as an endorsement of government regulation. By leaving that part out, McDonnell made Jefferson--founder of what has become the modern Democratic Party--sound a good bit more like an anti-tax, anti-regulation Republican than he was in reality.

Create a Commonwealth of Opportunity for all Virginians

I want to see opportunity flourishing in the successful start-up of a small business in Norfolk. in the farmer able to keep working his family's land. in the first-time home buyer receiving her new keys.