Remember this? That was embarrassing.

Creigh Deeds needed to find a way to avoid more verbal fumbles. Saying something new revealed a serious weakness for Deeds: he really can’t discuss the substance of an issue without doing fatal damage to his tax-raising campaign. So what’s the solution? Instead of saying anything new, Creigh is just repeating himself:

In a gubernatorial debate that covered little new ground, Virginia Democrat R. Creigh Deeds went to an extreme.

Mr. Deeds, during the candidates’ fourth debate Tuesday night, repeated nearly verbatim the two-minute closing remarks he delivered during their third debate the previous week, even though polls show voters are not identifying with the message…

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Excellent news.

Bob McDonnell 59
Creigh Deeds 40

Bill Bolling 56
Jody Wagner 42

Ken Cuccinelli 56
Steve Shannon 41

SOURCE

Ouch.

When the trailing candidate’s campaign starts talking about GOTV as the primary strategy for victory, it’s over.

…the question that remains unanswered is whether they can prevail in a campaign in which Virginia’s many independent voters have turned against the national Democratic brand and with a nominee who many in the party privately believe has run a mediocre race.

The answer will be revealed on Election Night when the returns come in from northern Virginia, and particularly Fairfax County, the commonwealth’s largest jurisdiction. The Deeds campaign believes it needs to carry the region with at least 55 percent to win the election and at least approach the 60 percent threshold that recent Democratic candidates have captured in populous Fairfax.

As for turnout, the hope is to push the percentage of northern Virginia’s vote from 33 percent of the statewide electorate to above 35 percent.

I am a little surprised that this post can be written now, though: I had it scheduled for some time around the 29th.  Obviously, turnout is very important; but it’s usually not until about a week or so before the actual election that losing campaigns start using it as a tool to backstop eroding enthusiasm.  Seeing this happen this early suggests that Virginia Democrats are worrying about the downticket races.

Moe Lane

PS: Bob McDonnell for Governor. Because it’s not over until it’s over.

PPS: The big question for Chris Christie in NJ isn’t turnout for him; it’s whether Daggett’s going to break double-digits on Election Day (at this moment, this question makes the difference between a 1-point win for Christie, and probably a 3-point one).  Which I’ll believe when I see it.

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

He asked for the President; he got the Cubslayer.

Gore coming to Va. for Deeds

Former Vice President Al Gore will be coming to Virginia on Friday to give a last-minute boost to the Democratic candidate for governor, Creigh Deeds, a party source said.

Gore will headline a private fundraiser in McLean at the home of longtime Democratic supporters Al and Claire Dwoskin.

But surely this doesn’t necessarily mean…

Obama in Virginia, But Not For Deeds

President Obama is in Fairfax County today.

But not to campaign for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds.

Snap!

Instead, Obama visits the Fairfax County Parkway extension today with Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood to talk about federal stimulus spending.

Ah.

Well.

Moe Lane

PS: Bob McDonnell for Governor.

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

The game is not over, but the clock is running out. And signs are starting to point to what we’ve thought all along.

Creigh Deeds is toast in Virginia. Now, the rats are scurrying from the ship.

Democratic candidates for Virginia’s House are subtly distancing themselves from Creigh Deeds’ struggling bid for governor as the top of their ticket faces mounting troubles.

While not denouncing Deeds or supporting his Republican opponent, Bob McDonnell, down-ballot Democrats are downplaying the importance of the marquee race’s outcome and emphasizing themselves as self-contained candidates.

All polls are showing Bob McDonnell ahead of Deeds and a sizable number are showing McDonnell outside the margin of error. Even more disastrous for the Virginia Democrats is that the polls are also showing the other statewide races to be in the Republicans’ favor — Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General.

Not since Dathan campaigned against Moses in the the Ten Commandants has a campaign been so disastrously craptacular. Well, there is Kay Bailey Hutchison, but I’m talking the 2009 election cycle and before.

Fortunately for Deeds, McDonnell has no stone tablet to throw at him and the ground will most likely not open up and swallow him whole as it did Dathan.

Still, when the Democrats are asking “Creigh who” when people ask them about Deeds’ campaign, he can’t be happy.

(Via Hot Air) The Democrats in this Politico piece about former Gov. Palin and the VA/NJ races are spouting nonsense about her long term appeal*, of course - they’re aware as I am that she’s going to be very much in demand in Congressional races where the Democratic incumbent is holding down a seat in a district that McCain or Bush won.  Of which there are quite a few; but Democratic strategists can perhaps not be blamed for not wanting to say something along the lines of ‘Well, THAT WOMAN is going to go through all those Southern/Western Blue-on-Red districts like a buzz-saw, so you might as well get used to it.’  The people who need to hear that most will want to hear it least.

That being said, I don’t expect her to participate in the NJ gubernatorial election, although VA’s may yet still see a presence if the McDonnell campaign goes sour.  Virginia’s at best lightly purple, even now; New Jersey’s pretty definitely blue.  Christie doesn’t have a margin for taking chances right now.

Moe Lane

*As might be perhaps witnessed by interest in her book, which is currently at #3 on Amazon after spending over a week at #1. And that was individual pre-order.

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

“I hope to God you understand this race is winnable.”
Vice President Joe Biden at yesterday’s fundraiser for VA gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds.

Having flogged the nothingburger story of the 20-year-old master’s thesis of VA Attorney General Bob McDonnell to bloody rags, the Washington Post does and abrupt volte face today and blames the lackluster campaign of Democrat candidate Creigh Deeds on flogging Bob McDonnell’s 20-year-old master’s thesis to bloody rags.

Republican Robert F. McDonnell has taken a commanding lead over R. Creigh Deeds in the race for governor of Virginia as momentum the Democrat had built with an attack on his opponent’s conservative social views has dissipated, according to a new Washington Post poll.

McDonnell leads 53 to 44 percent among likely voters, expanding on the four-point lead he held in mid-September. Deeds’s advantage with female voters has all but disappeared, and McDonnell has grown his already wide margin among independents. Deeds, a state senator from western Virginia, is widely seen by voters as running a negative campaign, a finding that might indicate that his aggressive efforts to exploit McDonnell’s 20-year-old graduate thesis are turning voters away.

Nowhere in the story does it mention that the thesis that is turning away voters in Virginia is the same thesis that generates 572 Google hits within the Washington Post and was regularly featured on the front page and editorial pages of that paper.

If the old saying “success has many fathers while failure is an orphan” is applied here, one could say that Creigh Deeds has just been stuck with paying child support for the Washington Post’s bastard.

I’m not celebrating a victory yet. Election day is still a ways off and as we’ve learned from past experience if anyone can turn a sure win into an abject defeat it is a Republican candidate. Hopefully, regardless of the outcome of this election, the takeaway is that if you use an incident manufactured by the editorial board of the Washington Post as the centerpiece of your campaign, you have no one but yourself to blame when you fail. And the Washington Post will have no but you to blame either.

Today’s top story at Human Events is an interview with Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell.

(Via The Campaign Spot) Not that they would ever, ever come out and say so - but when the one truly hopeful poll that one’s had in months for a particular campaign reverses itself the next time it’s taken again, well.  Let’s just say that a handy excuse would be… handy.

The bad poll news comes on the heels of a story circulating in Democratic circles today that the Democratic National Committee is reportedly holding on to its $5 million financial commitment to the Deeds campaign out of concern that the Deeds campaign has focused too much of its attention on the controversial Bob McDonnell 1989 grad-school thesis setting out a hardline social-conservative political agenda for his budding political career and not enough on putting down a framework for what a Deeds administration would do for Virginia.

That’s so clever it’s almost diabolical. Remember: Deeds is the guy that the national party had the least preexisting ties with, so there’s less people to offend here.  And telling him to come up with a new campaign narrative may sound reasonable - until you remember that we’re down to one month before the election. Also, five million dollars is suddenly looking like a lot more money, in this era of anemic Democratic fundraising; obviously, spending it on an election is what it’s there for… but throwing it away on an election is usually not considered smart.

Again, there’s no possible way that the DNC will ever admit that they’re going to cut Deeds loose.  They’ll in fact angrily deny it.  But ask yourself: in their shoes, would you be throwing good money after Creigh?

Moe Lane

PS: Bob McDonnell for Governor. It’s the only way to be sure.

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orzag says a health care bill can be completed in six weeks, based upon the Senate finance committee’s model.

Six weeks…that puts the due date right around the time of the election here in Virginia (and New Jersey). Naturally, this has tongues wagging that the success or failure of health care could depend upon the outcome of the gubernatorial contests here and in the Garden State.

The Journal’s Kimberley Strassel believes:

The Virginian’s problem is that [Creigh Deeds is] a little too important to party leaders. The Obama White House isn’t half as worried about what Virginia means for next year’s elections as it is what Virginia means for this year’s health fight. A wipeout in the Old Dominion could send Blue Dogs scampering for cover. If health care isn’t done by Nov. 3, it may not get done. Mr. Obama needs Mr. Deeds to win.

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I went to a Virginia Conservative Campaign Fund party last night for Ken Cuccinelli, Bob McDonnell, and Bill Bolling.

If you will recall, in 1993 the Republicans took over Virginia. It was a clear signal to the nation that a backlash was coming against the Democrats. Consequently, the Democrats ran for cover and Bill Clinton’s liberal agenda was largely shut down.

If McDonnell, Bolling, and Cuccinelli sweep Virginia this year as Governor, Lt. Governor, and Attorney General respectively, the same thing will happen. Democrats will run scared. Couple that with New Jersey and the willingness of Democrats to carry Barry O’s and Nancy’s water will greatly diminish.

Consider donating to the Virginia Conservative Campaign Fund by going here. They’ll target the money and help the candidates whose victories will mean the destruction of Obamacare.

It’s a backdoor defeat, but it is still a defeat.

Deer. Headlights.

“I think I made myself clear.”

Do you think so?

Contribute to Bob McDonnell here.

2006; Senator George Allen is running for re-election against former Republican Jim Webb. Despite the polls everywhere showing that the GOP was going to have a very unhappy Election Night in a few weeks, Allen was comfortably ahead and already planning his next six years in Washington DC representing the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Then he (as he says), derisively referring to a video stalker working for the Webb campaign’s mohawk style haircut, uttered one fateful three-syllable word; “macaca” - which supposedly was a racial slur in Morocco or French Tunisia sometime in the 1940s and ’50s.

Whatever the case, over the next few weeks until Election Day, on the basis of “macaca” George Allen found himself having to face charges on the front pages of Virginia’s newspapers, often leveled by anonymous “sources” or supposedly “neutral” witnesses that upon deeper investigation were revealed to be highly partisan actors that he was an unrepentant white supremacist who once stuffed a severed deer’s head in a black family’s mailbox and nicknamed college football teammates after KKK Grand Wizards.

Leading the charge was the Washington Post - the editorial board and reporting staff of which put out over a 100 articles and editorials, more than a dozen on the front page, in about half as many days on “macaca” - all very obviously deliberately calculated to plant the perception in the minds of the Virginia electorate that George Allen was a racist bigot just in time for the General Election - which Allen lost to Jim Webb by less than 1%.

The Washington Post had successfully swung an election to favor its chosen candidate … and three years later, it’s trying to repeat the same feat - this time in the upcoming Virginia Governor’s race.

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We now have definitive proof that the Washington Post is intentionally generating in-kind contributions to the Creigh Deeds campaign in Virginia.

Having taken out George Allen over his macaca comment, the Washington Post intends to politically assassinate Virginia Attorney General Bob McDonnell for his college thesis written over 20 years ago.

How do we know? Because of their coverage of Green Jobs Czar Van Jones. The Washington Post has written exactly zero stories on Van Jones despite the very real and serious story — Barack Obama has hired, without congressional oversight, a man designated to spend $80 billion in tax payer dollars who has a very questionable recent past.

Compare that to the Washington Post’s treatment of Bob McDonnell. The Virginia gubernatorial candidate and present Attorney General for the Commonwealth wrote a college thesis over 20 years ago. Instead of focusing on McDonnell’s record in office or present events on the campaign trail, the Washington Post has written nine articles about Bob McDonnell in five days.

Were the Washington Post not a media operation, it would very much be in violation of campaign finance laws for its contributions to the Deeds campaign.

Isn’t there a television show that does this sort of thing?  Countdown With Keith Olbermann Jackass, or something like that?

Bob McDonnell’s campaign received a call this morning from a woman who called herself “Jennifer” and claimed to be a freelance reporter from the Connection newspapers in Northern Virginia. She asked for information about McDonnell’s schedule.

The problem? She isn’t a reporter. She actually works for Creigh Deeds’s campaign.

McDonnell spokesman Tucker Martin, who took her call, said the caller ID showed Deeds’s campaign headquarters phone number and the words “Deeds for Va.”

Jim Geraghty’s right: this isn’t the biggest thing in the world. In that, it’s a perfect match to Deed’s campaign.  I particularly enjoyed the fumble-fingered way that they got tripped up; you know, I’m pretty sure that Moran would have been able to play this particular dirty trick properly…

Moe Lane

PS: McDonnell for Governor. Donate here.

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

Finally, twenty years after it was written and several major campaigns he’s run, the Washington Post is finally picking apart his college thesis.

No, I’m not talking about Barack Obama. The Washington Post never bothered to track down and examine the college thesis of Barack Obama. But, it has found the twenty year old thesis of Bob McDonnell, the Republican candidate for Governor of Virginia.

With Creigh Deeds imploding, the media decided it had to do something to help the Democrat. So they are highlighting McDonnell’s twenty year old thesis. In it, they find a candidate who is, brace yourselves, conservative. He went, after all, to Regent University, and his thesis is publicly available.

In other words, they could have written about it when he was running for the Virginia House of Delegates or Virginia Attorney General, but they wanted to wait until now when the Democrat needs some help. And what do they find that the man believed twenty years ago?

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I said the other day that, “Creigh Deeds, Democrat gubernatorial candidate in Virginia, is running the most pathetic campaign for anything since Alan Keyes challenged Barack Obama for the Illinois Senate.”

I was wrong.

Creigh Deeds is running the worst campaign since that kid no one in history remembers tried to beat William Pitt the Younger for third grade class president back in the 1760’s.

This is pathetic.

If you will recall, Creigh Deeds started this week wanting people to know that if Bob McDonnell were Governor of Virginia, more kids would live than if Deeds were Governor.

That did not work.

Deeds rapidly moved on to claiming Bob McDonnell flew a confederate flag at an event. That did not work, but it did allow the Washington Post to remind people that

According to a 1999 Roanoke Times article, Deeds told legislators during that debate that: “I grew up in a house with a portrait of the Confederate flag on the wall. I grew up in a house with a portrait of Robert E. Lee on the wall over my bed.”

Deeds tossed his campaign manager after that one.

But brace yourselves. Creigh Deeds has come up with a new and never before been tried before except by Walter Mondale in 1984 winning strategy.

Creigh Deeds wants Virginians everywhere to know that if he is elected Governor of Viriginia, Creigh Deeds promises to raise taxes.

Creigh Deeds. Winner.

Creigh Deeds, Democrat gubernatorial candidate in Virginia, is running the most pathetic campaign for anything since Alan Keyes challenged Barack Obama for the Illinois Senate. My city council campaign was run better and more successful that his gubernatorial campaign is going.

The other day, the Deeds campaign decided to stop talking about the economic downturn affecting Virginia, taxes, education, and other issues a majority of voters pay attention to in order to fixate on baby killing. That’s right. Deeds decided his winning issue in Virginia would be that if Bob McDonnell were Governor of Virginia less babies would be aborted than if Creigh Deeds were Governor.

It didn’t work.

So the campaign rapidly moved from abortion to the Confederacy.

According to Creigh Deeds’ campaign and the Democrats, Bob McDonnell flew the Confederate flag at the Virginia Outdoor Sportsman Show.

The Democrats — more likely than not the Deeds campaign — sent a picture of the McDonnell booth to left-wing Virginia blogger Ben Tribbett, who blogs as “Not Larry Sabato”. Tribbett tried his best to blow up the story as something worth noting.

Joe Abbey, Deeds campaign manager, sent out a tweet this afternoon: “BREAKING NEWS: MCDONNELL HAS CONFEDERATE FLAG POSTED IN HIS BOOTH AT GUN SHOW IN RICHMOND” linking to the blog story.

The Deeds campaign rushed out to say Abbey was twittering away during working hours at the office for himself and was not operating for the campaign. We all know that’s crap, but in the lameness that is the Deeds campaign, that has to pass as their most plausible excuse.

Why?

Because the story blew up in their faces.

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