Its no small wonder why:

By contrast, national Democrats are growing more worried about their prospects in Virginia.

While there has been little polling other than by automated surveys, the race is seen as similarly competitive as in New Jersey –the difference is that Deeds is not moving in the same fashion as Corzine.

Top Democrats have concerns over both the Virginia Democrat and his campaign, especially their near-blanket focus on the controversial graduate school thesis penned by McDonnell.

“I think he’s probably gotten as much as he’s going to get out of the thesis,” said a Democratic strategist who is following governor’s races. “The critical thing is that he turn the corner and put together a real positive message addressing voter anxieties.”

So, is Deeds putting together that “real positive message”? Sure…if that includes suggesting your opponent opposes mammograms. The following, however, is the money bit:

When questioned about the Obama factor and the backdrop in which Deeds is running, a top Democrat shot back: “If I were in their shoes and had a candidate who fumbled the tax question and was stupid enough to write an op-ed saying I’m going to raise your taxes, I’d be complaining about [the environment], too.”

Awesome. More shots at Deeds from pissed off anonymous Democrat sources, please! Will we see Obama campaign for Deeds? I suspect we’ll see a brief visit within the next month, probably close to Election Day…a sort of ‘rally the apathetic base’-type thing. But, given his mediocre approval ratings in VA and the lousy Deeds campaign, I doubt it’ll make much of an impact either way. Obama, too, has to be careful in tying himself too much to the result in this race should Deeds lose. He’s already gone out on a limb once in that regard and been burned.

UPDATE: Hmmm-

The blogger Not Larry Sabato has video of McDonnell supporter Sheila Johnson, the co-founder of BET, referring to politicians who can’t communicate, “especially his op-op-op-op-opponent.”

NLS claims that this amounts to “mocking the disabled.” I’ve been digging and looking through archives, but I have yet to find any reference to Deeds having a speech impediment before that blog post.

Its being claimed that the stammering Deeds is prone to-something even the Washington Post has taken note of-is due to a physical impairment caused by an accident Deeds had as a child. Of course, the blogger who claims to have read that somewhere cannot find his source for that information, and as the piece notes there has been no mention of this anywhere else.

My guess? That this is an attempt to shield Deeds from the incoherence he sometimes suffers from when explaining his position on certain issues. If a physical impediment was actually diagnosed at one point, that’s one thing, and Johnson’s mocking boils down to being mean-spirited. Unnecessary, given the lifelessness of the Deeds campaign, but not exactly unprecedented during political campaigns. I’ll be interested to hear what the Deeds camp says in response, if anything.

UPDATE: Stupid-

The billionaire co-founder of Black Entertainment Television apologized Monday for pretending to stutter at a campaign event as she mimicked the Democratic candidate for governor.

BET co-founder Sheila Johnson, for years a major donor to President Barack Obama, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine and other Democrats, stunned Virginia political observers in July by endorsing Republican Bob McDonnell in the governor’s race.

Um, to my knowledge there’s been no confirmation Deeds has a diagnosed stuttering problem. I’ve heard him talk plenty of times and never heard it…its only when he’s asked to explain his murky positions on the issues that he seems to stammer. To me, that indicates he simply struggles to take a coherent stand on anything, nothing more. Almost as if he’s a lousy candidate or something, you know?

Plus…Democrats and the Left had a field day mocking Bush’s speech, as well as Palin’s. They also, if I remember correctly (and I do), took great joy in making fun of GOP gubernatorial candidate Jerry Kilgore’s accent during the 2005 campaign. And, the blogger who unearthed this video of the McDonnell supporter? He is infamous for referring to Deeds supporters as ‘Creightards’. What wit that tool has! Hmm, that seems awfully, awfully close to mocking those with mental retardation, does it not? Given all that, spare me the faux outrage over Johnson’s remark, k?