First it was Rep. Jim Moran; now a swarm of Democrats are “pleading” with Creigh Deeds to stop the negative onslaught against his Republican opponent, Bob McDonnell, in an effort to pull his campaign out of a tailspin. Governor and DNC chairman Tim Kaine and Terry McAuliffe have joined the chorus and apparently gone public to make their case. (If Deeds loses, this also lets fellow Democrats know it wasn’t their fault.) There is this little tidbit as well in Politico’s coverage:
And in a jab at the newspaper that delivered a crucial endorsement to Deeds that helped in McAuliffe’s defeat, McAuliffe cracked that Deeds wasn’t even the most effective attack dog in the campaign. “Creigh pretty much doesn’t have to say anything because the Washington Post is out there every day doing it,” McAuliffe joked.
Indeed. Nevertheless, it was the Post‘s thesis obsession that likely encouraged Deeds to rely almost exclusively on a negative message. He’s now overdone it and, more important, failed to explain to voters what he will do about bread-and-butter issues like transportation, education, and jobs. In the final month of the campaign, we’ll see if Deeds can turn his campaign around. If not, this may go down as the campaign in which the Post went too far — and did its favorite candidate no favor.
