Obama visits Fairfax site to promote his stimulus package

President Barack Obama talked up his stimulus package yesterday in Northern Virginia, but he didn't say a word about the fellow Democrat who could use a boost from the White House: gubernatorial hopeful R. Creigh Deeds.

Obama visited the site of the Fairfax County Parkway extension, the biggest project in Virginia financed under the president's plan to jump-start the economy through massive federal spending.

Meantime, Deeds, who is expecting another Obama appearance in his behalf to help close the continuing gap with Republican Bob McDonnell, was at Old Dominion University in Norfolk.

Deeds, a state senator from Bath County, plumped his proposal to produce more college graduates, in part, by forgiving some of their loans in return for public service.

Republicans pounced on yesterday's presidential visit, saying the absence at the event of Deeds and Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, Obama's handpicked chairman of the Democratic National Committee, is proof the party's national leadership is giving up on Deeds.

Further, Republicans said, the Obama appearance is a reminder that Virginia ranks last among states and the District of Columbia in spending stimulus dollars for transportation, so far committing only $1.3 billion of nearly $4 billion.

"You've got to figure that both Creigh Deeds and Tim Kaine aren't too happy about the president's decision to come to Virginia to highlight these problems," state Republican Party Chairman Pat Mullins said in a written statement.

Deeds, nonetheless, is receiving some help from Obama political apparatus. Automated telephone calls from Organizing for America and financed by the DNC are being directed at Obama voters in Virginia, some of whom have been slow to rally to Deeds.

"It's a sign . . . that folks who came out to help President Obama last year are coming out to help this year," Deeds spokesman Jared Leopold said. In 2008, Obama became the first Democrat in 44 years to carry Virginia for president.

Also, the DNC began posting advertisements on social-networking site Facebook, focusing on McDonnell's ties to Pat Robertson, the conservative Virginia-based television evangelist.

A former attorney general, McDonnell studied law at Robertson-founded Regent University, writing a controversial 1989 thesis in which he criticized working women, contraception and gays.

He later served on the university's governing board. Democrats say his eight-year tenure as a trustee is evidence he tolerated a hiring policy at Regent that critics say discriminates against women.

McDonnell, who yesterday added the support of the Vietnamese American Chamber of Commerce to a trove of endorsements, has used television advertising to deflect claims he is disparaging of working women.

McDonnell has run spots featuring his daughter, an Army veteran in Iraq; and some of the women he hired in the attorney general's office.

With the gubernatorial candidates required to report fresh fundraising figures today, Deeds and McDonnell are again focusing on the cash harvest.

Tomorrow, former Vice President Al Gore will appear at a high-dollar event for Deeds at the McLean home of developer Al Dwoskin.

McDonnell traveled to Washington last night for a reception featuring House Minority Leader John A. Boehner, R-Ohio.

Contact Jeff E. Schapiro at (804) 649-6814 or .