I'm not quite sure
what to make of this - honest feelings by Kaine, (very) clever political spin, or both?
Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine said Monday that Democrat R. Creigh Deeds lost his campaign for governor because he was unable to energize his base, falling into a Republican trap that led him to shrink from the president and his policies.
In a meeting with editors and reporters of The Washington Post, Kaine (D) said Deeds squandered the opportunity to sell his own appealing life story as a guy who had overcome long odds and economic disadvantage. Instead, the rural state senator took the advice of campaign consultants who wrongly assumed Deeds's Democratic support was solid and believed he should instead focus on wooing independents by attacking Republican Robert F. McDonnell.
"After the [June] primary was done, his advisers basically said, distance yourself from the president. We think we have our base locked down, we've got to win independents. And we're going to win by being negative about McDonnell," Kaine said. "That was the basic strategy they pursued, despite some significant urging to the contrary."
...I will say is that I always believed from the very beginning that the paradigm in Virginia had changed and that the way to win the race was to energize voters who had demonstrated they would vote for Democrats. That I did advise him very, very early. I advised all the candidates, prior to the primary, that was a path to victory."
I mean, I don't disagree with any of this, but I do wonder if Kaine's also doing a few things here: protect Barack Obama, protect himself, and focus the blame on Deeds and his advisors. Fascinating.
