Waiting for an apology for Creigh Deeds

Answer: Martha Coakley and Jon Corzine
Question: Who are two Democratic losers not named Creigh Deeds?
For all the bashing of Deeds for losing the Virginia gubernatorial race, he didn't cost Democratic New Jersey or the Massachusetts Senate seat also. He didn't have a memo leaked on election day trying to blame others for his loss.
Are the Democrats just having a bad run of luck with bad candidates, or something else?
Deeds may not have run the best campaign in 2009, but he's not the only dumped Democrat. He may be history, but history will look better on him as the Democratic toll rises.

I'm the governor, nobody listens to me

Blue Virginia has the latest Tim Kaine election excuse
"I think they gave him bad advice."
but his commenters nail it.
But does anyone honestly think that if Kaine (who was not only the sitting governor but also had Obama's ear) were really there telling Deeds about a campaign that the Deeds people utterly and completely tuned them out and told them to go away because they knew better?

Maybe Deeds should write a book

I wonder if Creigh Deeds has checked out Sarah Palin's book. He could write about his bad experiences on the campaign trail in 2009.
I doubt he'd have the lines at book signings like Palin did, but I have a title idea for him -
"Virginia Going Rouge."

I can't believe my lying eyes

Blue Virginia watches a video of Bob McDonnell and can't square the circle - this isn't the monster I think he is.
You'll see plenty more starting January 16.

Can Deeds blame Jimmy Buffett?

Jimmy Buffett brought his Coral Reefer Band to visit the Parrotheads of Charlottesville, and played a new song - called "Nobody from Nowhere" - from his album due out December 8.
Nobody from nowhere described Deeds, in 2005 and now.
If Buffett had brought out the song earlier, maybe they could have used it in the Deeds' campaign. Pump up the excitement. And maybe the Parrothead vote would have helped.
Instead it's a Democratic feeding frenzy. "Fins to the left, fins to the right and you're the only bait in town."

High maintenance voters

Much has been written about the missing Democratic voters - those who came out for Obama in 2008 and didn't for Deeds in 2009. Much has been said about Deeds not being exciting. But what does this say about the voters?
Are they high maintenance voters? To get their votes, you've got to give them stuff? If the gifts and trinkets stop, then they go looking for the next sugar daddy.
The Obama candidacy was historic. That provides satisfaction, but it's one and done. Not transferable.
It was also full of "I'll give you this and somebody else will pay." Only the rich would pay extra, he said. Then reality hit.
If Democrats are depending on wooing voters will more stuff each election, they are doomed. In deep, deep trouble. Because that well is dry. Just check the current deficit numbers.
You can't get high maintenance voters in this budget era. Besides, this line of thinking gives me an excuse to post this video by Toby Keith "High Maintenance Woman."

Toby Keith

More CMT Music

More CMT Music Videos

Deeds' email from November 2010

Gov. Tim Kaine tells his side of the 2009 election story to the Washington Post.
After next year's election, perhaps Creigh Deeds can fire off an email - "Whose fault are all these Democratic losses? Yours, not mine."
Hopefully, somebody will check with Deeds next year.

Did Frederick's ouster doom Democrats?

The Democrats have done plenty of soul-searching and blog-posting about last week's loss. Blue Virginia goes all historical today about the impact of blogs on the process.
How about another angle to throw out?
Could the Republicans have won with Jeff Frederick as RPV chairman?
The struggle to replace him was the big story of late winter and early spring. It was supposed to show the cracks in the Republican Party that would allow Democrats better chances in 2009.
Did it end up making a difference? Or were the national conditions for Democrats so bad and Deeds' campaign so poor that the Republicans still would have won?
Discuss among yourselves.

Waynesboro - back to normal

Chris Graham looks at the voting numbers in Waynesboro.
2004 - John Kerry 30 percent
2008 - Barack Obama 44 percent
2009 - Creigh Deeds 31 percent
Now, besides changing his name to Barack Obama Deeds, what could he have done to excite voters and the party faithful?
You can only have the first African-American running for president once. When the excitement of that wears off, does that leave Democrats back where they started from? In Waynesboro, the answer appears to be yes.

How much longer?

The real Bob McDonnell site is still alive, as of 8 p.m. on November 7.
When will it go the way of Jeff Frederick, just a dim memory?
Hey, Frederick's picture is still there as a friend of McDonnell. Guess they didn't keep up with Tuesday's news.

Where were they in June?

Blue Virginia touts a poll showing voters who stayed home wanting a more progressive candidate than Creigh Deeds turned out to be.
They had two - Brian Moran and Terry McAuliffe. They were sent packing June 9.
Tell me again why McAuliffe - with all his money and chutzpah - wasn't the nominee?

Obama and Virginia

For me, it's not important whether voters were voting against Obama Tuesday.
It's important that they didn't vote for his candidate.
They didn't say, "Hey, it's a Democrat like Obama. I'll vote for him."
If he didn't inspire them this November, he won't next November. And likely not November 2012.

Another day, another whine

Blue Virginia continues to dissect Creigh Deeds' loss. There's a nice link to a Politico piece that flays the pollster for his June advice - "we've got Obama supporters locked up, so fight for the rest of the state."
At least Politico puts it all in perspective at the story's end.
If Deeds had won, Petts and his fellow Deeds consultants would be dining out on their reputations for political genius. Instead, they find themselves in the midst of a political insiders' debate about whether it was bad advice in Virginia or a bad climate flowing from Washington that bears the brunt of blame for an Election Day debacle.

"One of the great flukes"

Charles Krauthammer looks at the 2008 election through the lens of this week's results.
November '08 was one shot, one time, never to be replicated. Nor was November '09 a realignment. It was a return to the norm -- and definitive confirmation that 2008 was one of the great flukes in American political history.
The irony of 2009 is that the anti-Democratic tide overshot the norm -- deeply blue New Jersey, for example, elected a Republican governor for the first time in 12 years -- because Democrats so thoroughly misread 2008 and the mandate they assumed it bestowed.
Virginia Democrats are struggling with the results, wondering where their voters went. The answer is right here, but it may not be the answer they want to hear.

Moaning and whining central

Blue Virginia has had several enjoyable posts about the Deeds debacle the past several days.
I began to see a pattern - political consultants should not be allowed to use the big kid scissors. Maybe not even the kindergarten scissors.
Then this post went up.
Ouch, ouch, ouch.

Blue, blue Virginia

Blue Virginia has several posts looking at what went wrong for Democrats.
Sounds like they think Democrats should have been more progressive.
I listen to Rush Limbaugh, and he thinks Republicans should be more conservative.
Somebody, maybe both, are deluding themselves.
My question is, how many of Deeds' flaws were evident during the spring primary season? He didn't turn inept overnight, did he?
Now Democrats have two years to fight each other before the next election.

What Tim Kaine and George Allen have in common

Both were finishing their terms as governor when Republicans swept the top three races - 1997 and 2009.

How Red is my county

Augusta County's 26 precincts have all reported.
Bob McDonnell won 77.46 percent of the vote - and that's a lower percentage than Bill Bolling or Ken Cuccinelli.

Technology makes election day fun

I'm enjoying the view from the internet of the Elections. You can feel the anguish dripping from most Democratic posts.
Is the election called at 7:01 p.m.? Or do they wait until 7:30 p.m.

Election Day triple play - Shannon

Closing out the triple play is a song for Steve Shannon. And remember, "pick up the signs from your front yard."

Another vote is at end
Dems were so tired again
We can't believe we're in the cellar

We hardly know what to say
The tide should have been our way
We can't believe we lost
to Cuccinelli

Shannon is done.
I heard he's losing 'cross the state
Where's the votes in Northern Va?
Maybe we'll try another day, until then
Pick up the sign from my frontyard

We will try hard to pretend
The party will do better again
But we can't use George Bush forever
Finally the tears fill our eyes
We know in the White House tonight, Obama's in real deep trouble

Shannon is done.
I heard he's losing 'cross the state
Where's the votes in Northern Va?
Maybe we'll try another day, but until then
Pick up the sign from my frontyard

Pick up the sign from my frontyard