“After a year of partisan warfare that brought Virginia to the brink of a state government shutdown, Gov. Terry McAuliffe has started showing Republicans so much love that he has some Democrats worried,” the Washington Post reports.

“The same governor who blasted Republicans last year for ‘demagoguery, lies, fear and cowardice’ has lately heaped praise on them, celebrating their willingness to find common ground in certain areas even as they blocked some of his top priorities. That dramatic shift in tone is one that legislators and political strategists chalk up to McAuliffe’s ‘growth’ as a governor, his humbling defeat on Medicaid expansion or his desire to shake his lightning-rod image to help his good friend Hillary Rodham Clinton win the swing state.”