I think that we had a Democratic candidate who is a very decent guy...but he didn't necessarily engage with people in Northern Virginia. I don't think he was able to mobilize and motivate the kind of base that President Obama was able to get engaged. Young people, minorities, they tended to stay away. In fact, if I could give you one anecdote, I hope it's not typical, but some African Americans actually said they voted for McDonnell rather than Deeds and I couldn't believe it, and they said, "well, we understand that Deeds doesn't support President Obama." Well, I don't think that's typical, but it does reveal something...without running with the President, as popular as he was, I think you pay a price for that, you just don't mobilize these young voters, so we're gonna lose several hundred thousand people...In addition to his (blunt but absolutely correct) comments on the disastrous Deeds campaign, Moran also stood by his "Taliban" comments, in fact reinforced them by saying that McDonnell, Bolling and Cooch are "pretty radical extremists." Jim Moran, love him or not, he sure never minces words!
...I think [the Democratic primary] wore down the candidates, but the Washington Post decided to support somebody from far Southwest saying he was a transportation governor; he doesn't have a stoplight in his district...It's the metropolitan vote in Northern Virginia that made the difference for Mark Warner, for Jim Webb, for Tim Kaine, and I'm not sure that Creigh was able to get them out...
P.S. It turns out that Deeds' pollster David Petts was advising Deeds essentially that he had NOVA and African Americans' support locked down, so not to waste his time there. Instead, Petts - who should NEVER work in Democratic politics again - told Deeds to spend his time and money trying to attract "independents outside the DC media market." Brilliant!
Of course, the people who actually followed this beyond-idiotic advice by David Petts also should never work in Democratic politics again. Last but not least, in the end, it all comes back to the candidate. Unless, of course, you don't believe (as I do) that "the buck stops here" or that "the fish rots from the head down."
