PPP nails it with its latest blog post Deeds' Identity Problem. Here's the problem though: conservatives think he's a liberal, but liberals don't. Whenever that's the case you have an identity problem with your candidacy.In short, Creigh hasn't managed to establish a clear personal and political narrative - who he is, what he stands for, and how those two tie together - in a way that grabs Obama voters, "low-information voters," etc. in 30 seconds or less. This is something many of us have been saying, for many months now, is absolutely essential for Creigh to do if he is to beat Bob McDonnell on 11/3. Unfortunately, according to PPP, it hasn't happened.
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Deeds hasn't been able to convince independent and Republican voters that he's a centrist and that's kept him from getting the sort of support that Warner and to a lesser extent Tim Kaine have received from them. At the same time he hasn't made folks on the left side of the spectrum feel he identifies with them either. When all that's true victory is a struggle.
Meanwhile, as much as I find McDonnell utterly abhorrent to everything I care about, he has managed to establish that narrative - he's a "moderate" "soccer dad" who will keep taxes low, keep Virginia "business friendly" and government lean, fix transportation and create jobs - even if it's all total malarkey and/or totally discredited claptrap(which it most certainly is!). In a nutshell, that's the story of this election; all else is commentary...
