What the WaPo endorsement could mean

Not all that long ago, Creigh Deeds was locked in a close three-way race for the Democratic nomination, and none of the candidates could pull ahead. Then, in advance of the election, Deeds received the endorsement of The Washington Post. That allowed him to make up some serious ground in Northern Virginia, where McAuliffe and Moran had been the stronger candidates, and propelled him to victory.

On Sunday, The Washington Post came through again. They left no doubt about it either, saying that Bob McDonnell "offers something different: a blizzard of bogus, unworkable, chimerical proposals, repackaged as new ideas, that crumble on contact with reality" while it is Deeds "whose ideas hold the promise of a prosperous future."

This could be just the boost that Creigh Deeds needed. While it won't have a big effect on the state as a whole, the Post is widely read in NoVA, where any Democrat has to win by a sizable margin. The latest polls have shown that Deeds only leads McDonnell by about five points in the north, nowhere near the levels that Tim Kaine and Mark Warner got from that part of the state. But if he can use this endorsement to his advantage (see the ad below), Deeds might be able to put himself in position for a big NoVA win on November 3, and that could be enough to make a race out of this.

-Mike