Update: Live streamed at Cnn.com
Obama will speak tonight at 7:10 at a rally for Virginia state senator Creigh Deeds at the Hilton McLean in Tysons Corner, Virginia. Deeds is running for governor against republican Robert McDonnell. I'll post video if it comes available.
One thing about "Deeds Country," as the swath of rural Virginia extending through the Shenandoah Valley and down into the southwest where state Sen. R. Creigh Deeds has been touring this week has been dubbed by his campaign: It apparently isn't Obama Country.Polls show that McDonnell is ahead by double digits, which is probably why Obama is rallying:
Outside stops in the more urban settings of Charlottesville, Danville and Blacksburg, many of the 20 visits Deeds (D-Bath) is making on a nine-day campaign swing that begun Sunday are in places where President Obama was beaten handily by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).
Appomattox, Hillsville, Tazewell, Floyd. All are areas where Obama did not break 35 percent of the vote.
Obama's victory in Virginia came because he won big in the state's suburban areas, particularly in Northern Virginia, where thousands of new and energized voters joined the rolls in the months leading up to November's election and then cast ballots for the Democrat.
That mirrored other recent successful Democratic strategies, including those of Gov. Timothy M. Kaine and Sen. James Webb, who both used sophisticated mathematical modeling to devise winning strategies rooted in the suburbs.
So a big summer push through the state's rural west -- instead of the developments, community pools and shopping malls of Virginia's densely populated regions -- has some progressives nervous about their candidate's strategy. Wapo
For the second time in as many weeks, a published poll is showing Republican Bob McDonnell with a double-digit lead for governor over Democrat R. Creigh Deeds.
Public Policy Polling yesterday put McDonnell ahead of Deeds, 51 percent to 37 percent. Four weeks ago, the Raleigh, N.C.-based survey group reported McDonnell leading Deeds, 49 percent to 43 percent.
