NoVa Skeptical Of Deeds' Accent, Farm Animals?

If you want to simplify it like that, sure, go ahead!

Northern Virginia has, as we all know, turned sharply "blue" in its voting tendencies over the last decade. Since that's where so many of the state's voters (or people in general!) reside, this regional shift has helped many recent Democrats -- Mark Warner, Jim Webb, Tim Kaine, and Barack Obama -- carry statewide elections in this traditionally deep-red commonwealth.

So why is the current Democratic candidate for governor, Creigh Deeds, running evenly with Republican Bob McDonnell in NoVa, according to recent polls? Deeds should be crushing him up there. Rather, he needs to crush him up there, if he wants to win the election!

Well, a couple of obvious reasons, for starters. Bob McDonnell is from northern Virginia, and for some reason many voters base their votes on which candidate lives or once lived nearest to them, geographically. Also, Deeds' campaign has been relatively quiet -- stealthy? -- all summer, and the candidate remains a mystery to many, many likely voters. But that's a much larger problem, for which we do not have time.

The Washington Post, however, "probes" this issue even further in a... well... in an article this morning. While it does list the above reasons as contributing factors to Deeds' NoVa struggles, the article focuses much more of its analysis on a superficial, divisive, culture-warrior's anecdotal extrapolation -- or more simply, "lazy B.S."

Yet Deeds, whose folksy background helped him succeed as a Democrat in the conservative territory of far western Virginia, faces a cultural hurdle farther north. Understated and twangy, a gun rights advocate who recently bragged about his experience operating on farm animals, Deeds has a persona that evokes a landscape far from the high-tech corridors and immigrant-packed shopping centers of Arlington and Fairfax counties.

Goodness! The imagery here isn't quite one-dimensional enough for our taste; maybe this reporter could throw a few more urban-vs.-rural stereotypes in the pot? Northern Virginians have the Internet, but Creigh Deeds only has farm animals! Northern Virginians have shiny shopping malls and minorities, but Creigh Deeds only has... farm animals!

Funny how these things weren't a problem for Deeds when he crushed those two big city fellers, Terry McAuliffe and Brian Moran, in all of northern Virginia during June's Democratic primary.

"Deeds has a persona that evokes a landscape far from the high-tech corridors and immigrant-packed shopping centers of Arlington and Fairfax counties." Really? Can we please move on?

Jim Newell writes for Wonkette and IvyGate.

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