At Norfolk rally, Obama urges backers to boost Deeds

NORFOLK—Having previously distanced himself from the president as a potential liability, R. Creigh Deeds now is embracing Barack Obama in what may be the Democratic gubernatorial candidate’s last chance to shift momentum.

Behind in the published polls and trailing in the cash hunt, Deeds and his running mates for lieutenant governor and attorney general joined Obama yesterday at a rally targeting the more than 500,000 new voters who in 2008 tipped the state Democratic for president for the first time in 44 years.

“Reports of my demise are much exaggerated,“ boomed Deeds, paraphrasing Mark Twain. Deeds, referring to Obama’s victory in Virginia, said: “We got an extraordinary result. . . . But the work is not finished.“

Stopping in Norfolk en route to Washington from an appearance in Florida, Obama appealed directly to his base—including young voters, trade unionists, women, African-Americans and Asians—to rally behind Deeds in the closing days of the campaign.

“I don’t believe in ‘can’t.‘ I don’t believe in giving up,“ said Obama, dismissing the polls and urging his supporters not to be complacent after last year’s historic victory.

“This is going to be a tough race,“ Obama told about 5,700 people at Old Dominion University’s basketball arena. “I mean, we’ve got a tough economy. And even if it wasn’t a tough economy, it’s always tough in Virginia.“

Obama continued: “But even though Virginia is moving in the right direction, this is an evenly split state, pretty independent-minded folks.“

Obama previously campaigned with Deeds, a Bath County state senator, at an Aug. 6 fundraiser in Fairfax County.

Yesterday’s trip came amid building momentum for Republican Bob McDonnell that so concerned the White House that administration officials, speaking anonymously, suggested to The Washington Post last week that Deeds appeared doomed.

However, Obama’s slippage in Virginia has become an obstacle for Deeds.

On Sept. 17, at a debate sponsored by the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce, moderator David Gregory asked Deeds whether Obama is his kind of Democrat.

“I’m a Creigh Deeds Democrat,“ he said.

During an Oct. 20 debate in Salem, Deeds broke with Obama on the proposed health-care overhaul when he said a public option is not a priority and that he would consider opting out if that were a state alternative.

For Republicans, yesterday’s presidential visit complemented what they have done throughout the Virginia campaign: nationalize the race, weaving into a state contest issues over which a governor often has little control, including the economy and energy policy.

“Creigh Deeds’ photo op with President Obama was only one more reminder of the Obama-Deeds vision of higher taxes and bigger government for Virginia families,“ said Katie Wright, spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee.

Obama took a swipe at McDonnell, a former state attorney general and former state delegate for Virginia Beach, in referring to the GOP nominee’s polished style that contrasts with Deeds’ folksy, sometimes-disjointed manner. Further, the president linked McDonnell to Republicans with whom his administration battles daily.

“Let me just be clear: We don’t need politicians who are more interested in scoring points than solving problems,“ Obama said. “We don’t need folks who are slick, or try to say one thing and then do another.

“We don’t need politicians who say we should go back to the policies of yesteryear, when it was those very same policies that got us into this mess in the first place. We’ve had enough of those kinds of politicians. We got a whole bunch of those in Washington, D.C.“

McDonnell also was criticized by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, who suggested the Republican has a “weird political agenda”—a reference to McDonnell’s controversial 1989 law-school thesis in which he criticized working women, gay people and unmarried couples.

Contact Jeff E. Schapiro at (804) 649-6814 or .