White House: What gubernatorial election in Virginia?

Two weeks out from Virginia’s election, the prospects for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds look so bad that the White House has bugged out early from Deeds’ side. The Washington Post reports that the Obama administration has become worried about how a Republican will make them look, and have begun leaking criticisms of the campaign. The leaks intend to pre-empt any analysis that uses Virginia as a measure of how Barack Obama’s power and popularity have weakened since his inauguration:

Sensing that victory in the race for Virginia governor is slipping away, Democrats at the national level are laying the groundwork to blame a loss in a key swing state on a weak candidate who ran a poor campaign that failed to fully embrace President Obama until days before the election.

Senior administration officials have expressed frustration with how Democrat R. Creigh Deeds has handled his campaign for governor, refusing early offers of strategic advice and failing to reach out to several key constituencies that helped Obama win Virginia in 2008, they say.