Dr. Larry Sabato grabbed the opportunity in a discussion with Jim Hoeft at Bearing Drift yesterday to recant part of his assessment that the Deeds campaign had come unraveled. Okay, that is an exaggeration of what Sabato claimed, in much the same manner that Sabato formulated his message to grab attention. Reminding Hoeft that he's been "at this a long time," he attempted to establish his credentials as a defense against his swing and miss at the Deeds camp. "As to what actually happened in Deeds Headquarters; whether Creigh Deeds might have intervened after my sources told me what they did, intervened on behalf of Joe Abbey, I don't know, it's possible that happened…I certainly know some senior Democrats who are connected to the Deeds campaign are unhappy and have been unhappy with Abbey's performance. Maybe he's being scapegoated, maybe he's not the one responsible. I don't know…" – Is Larry SabatoWhen Hoeft brought up the introduction of social issues by Deeds into the gubernatorial campaign, Sabato questioned whether it makes sense tactically. He suggested that a candidate must first establish "why are you running, what is it you are going to do, why does it matter in people's lives, why should they bother going to the polls to vote for you?"
Sabato also took the opportunity to opine that he thinks Deeds should accept his invitation to debate in the Dome room of the rotunda at UVA. Magnanimously, he's also in favor of Deeds accepting Hoeft's Blogs United invitation to debate. For that matter Sabato's in favor of Deeds accepting any invitation to debate. And in a thinly veiled swipe at Deeds, he implied that it is Deeds' debating skills that are at the root of his decision to decline every invitation to answer the same mundane questions in venue after venue instead of actually campaigning.
Meanwhile, Sabato missed the real coup: the NLS takeover of the DPVA.
