One Step Forward, Two Steps Backward

Just one day before Vice President Joe Biden is set to headline a fundraiser for Creigh Deeds, the Wall Street Journal reported, “The White House is stepping back from lending its heft to a bellwether gubernatorial race in Virginia, party strategists say, seeking to conserve its political capital and avoid close association with a candidate who might lose.”

If the report is true, it raises the question: What is Joe Biden doing in Virginia?

There are only two rational answers:

1)    Joe Biden plans to identify one of the “turkeys” he alluded to last week when he was in Virginia for a fundraiser to support three Democratic House candidates and said, “These guys are smart. Some of the guys… I have campaigned for are turkeys.” Biden had campaigned with Deeds earlier this year.

-or-

2)    The White House is as evasive about its political plans as Creigh Deeds is about                  taxes.

Regardless of the real reason why Biden is heading to Virginia, the President joins a growing number of prominent Democrats who have begun to distance themselves from Deeds’ faltering campaign.

The News & Advance reported last week that DNC chairman Tim Kaine said, “I’m convinced this 32-year trend of, the White House goes one way, the governorship goes the other, is not just a coincidence.”

Even the Democratic Governors Association appears to be losing confidence in their candidate. Last week the Washington Post reported on Virginia Democrats’ anger at the DGA’s lack of engagement in the race; and DGA chairman Brian Schweitzer, who endorsed one of Deeds’ primary opponents, was unenthusiastic when asked about Deeds’ chances to win.