NORFOLK -- Down in the polls and short on cash, gubernatorial candidate R. Creigh Deeds is now running as an Obama Democrat.
Deeds, hoping to energize his campaign in the closing week of the Virginia race, joined President Barack Obama this afternoon at a rally at Old Dominion University in Norfolk.
The event was targeted at many of the first-time voters who helped tip Virginia to Obama last year.
Obama told the audience at ODU's Ted Constant Convocation Center to ignore the polls and pull out the stops for Deeds and his running mates in the last seven days of the contest.
Obama made a special pitch to his base saying "I know there are a lot of people here who came out for my campaign . . . maybe they feel a little complacent, a little cynical because we didn't change things overnight."
Obama made passing reference to the Republican front-runner, Bob McDonnell.
"We don't need people who are slick, who say one thing and do another and go back to the policies of yesteryear," he said. "They got us in trouble in the first place."
Obama continued, "we've got enough of those politicians -- we have a whole bunch in Washington D.C."
In selecting Norfolk for the president's fly-in, Democrats are targeting eastern Virginia's large number of African-American, labor and young voters -- all of whom were crucial to Obama's win last year.
Obama is the first Democrat to win Virginia for the presidency in 44 years.
Deeds, a state senator from Bath County, also waived off the latest polls.
He said, borrowing a line from Mark Twain, "reports of my demise are much exaggerated." Deeds called on Democrats to "drive out every single vote we can."
Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, Obama's hand-picked chairman of the Democratic National Committee, warmed up the crowd with a prediction that Deeds would defy the polls.
"We've got to work awful hard for the next seven days," Kaine said. "We've shown them that we can surprise them."
Joining Deeds at the rally were his running mates for lieutenant governor and attorney general, Jody Wagner and Steve Shannon, respectively.
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