This morning, the Washington Post shows Barack Obama’s political operation at its best: when they’re playing a game of “cover your ass.”

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.

The whole article is full of unsourced comments, but it’s amusing to read — all the more hilarious because it’s run in the Washington Post, the organization that has been focused more than any other — and yes, that includes the Democratic National Committee — with propping up Criegh Deeds weak candidacy. For over two months, the Post ran unceasing stories on Republican Bob McDonnell’s twenty-year-old graduate thesis, and when this manufactured controversy failed, they turned to others.

Attempting to follow the script of Jim Webb’s narrow win over George Allen in 2006, the Deeds campaign started floating around with visions of Macaca dancing in their heads. Three years in its wake, the lessons of the Macaca incident are about to take down another candidate. But this time, it’s the Democrat.

Deeds hammering away at McDonnell with the Post in hand ended up having marginal impact on the polls, if any. The Post, with all the duplicity of a fickle lover scorned, turned on Deeds, accusing him of overreaching and running a too-negative campaign (one wonders if they would have this criticism if, say, it had worked?). The Post “blames the lackluster campaign of Democrat candidate Creigh Deeds on flogging Bob McDonnell’s 20-year-old master’s thesis to bloody rags,” which of course he was only doing because they fueled it in the first place.

A recent poll showed McDonnell up by 8, 49% to 41%, and another poll by the Post showed McDonnell up by nine. Deeds failed to capitalize on a potential moment of weakness, and is now desperately searching for momentum as his race with McDonnell heads toward the final stretch.

The truth about Deeds, a generally nice and easygoing southern Democrat, is that he’s spent much of this campaign pretending to be something he’s not. When Democrats have won in Virginia — with the exception of Obama’s win here — they’ve won by running moderate, pro-gun, pro-business candidates in Warner, Webb, and Kaine. Deeds fits this mold — but he adds on the awkwardness of a country candidate, not a new media guru or a clipped military persona.

It’s a stark contrast to McDonnell, perhaps the most telegenic and appealing candidate Virginians have seen statewide in some time. A Northern Virginia mainstream conservative, McDonnell has a tough-on-crime reputation and a proven ability to unite the warring factions of one of the worst-run parties in the country. What’s more, his impressive family — including his professionally successful daughters — were more than enough to beat back the accusations that he was anti-woman. McDonnell lacks many of Allen’s weaknesses, and the tactic of trying to convince Virginia voters that this centrist Fairfax professional is a crazy, out of touch, medieval Republican completely backfired.

This is all good news for the GOP in a race that has become a referendum on President Obama and the policies of Democrats in Washington. The President himself is making a late push for Deeds, telling Virginians “it’s time to get fired up” for Deeds, his speech being reused in an ad that shows very little of Deeds himself. Premiering this week, it “looks, at first, like an Obama campaign ad.” Viewers hear narration by the President with optimistic music and that trademark Obama ad component — a rainbow of Americans looking directly into the camera. “Eventually it becomes clear that it’s actually an ad for Deeds, who is finally shown as Mr. Obama is heard endorsing him.” Obama urges voters on, hoping to remind them of the excitement of his campaign and trying to associate that same euphoria with the rather bland Creigh Deeds.

In his note to supporters Obama asked them to keep “the promise of change alive.” Of course, what change means for Virginia is a bit different, after eight years of Democrats dominating the governor’s mansion and taking both of the state’s Senate seats.

But the President’s direct appeal to voters and his close involvement in this tight race shows just how desperate the Democrats are to hold this seat in their column. A win by the GOP here would show that all the unrest across the country over recent administration policies has finally begun to incur real world results at the ballot box, chipping away at Democrats notion that all is well in the land of hope and change.

Deeds has been stumbling in this race for some time, especially when it comes to a central issue to Virginians, transportation. He asserts that “all options are on the table” when it comes to transportation funding. This, admittedly, includes new taxes, something voters struggling in a downturned economy are probably not excited to hear. In fact estimates now put the needed gas tax revenue at a whopping $1 billion, which Deeds may seek to accomplish by doubling the Virginia gas tax to around 40 cents a gallon. It doesn’t take a political genius to know that is going to be an extremely difficult and incredibly unpopular levy to impose on working families in Mr. Jefferson’s Virginia.

If there’s a key moment in the campaign, it’s this — not the thesis, but the fact that McDonnell had footage of a current, embarassing moment on a matter of policy flip-flopping. McDonnell’s campaign has taken the perhaps unprecedented step of running a full-minute long ad statewide showing Deeds post-debate conversation with reporters, unedited footage of the candidate stumbling through his rhetorical attempts to allow wiggle room for some tax increases:

McDonnell has a key advantage over Deeds in these closing days – money. As of last week, McDonnell had $1.8 million more to spend on the race than Deeds, despite recent fundraisers and public support for the Democrat from Vice President Joe Biden, Former President Bill Clinton, Former Vice President Al Gore and of course, President Obama. This is already, “the most expensive race the Democratic Governors Association has ever run,” having put more than $4 million into the race. The Democratic National Committee has also pledged $6 million.

For Deeds to win, he won’t just need the vocal support of Obama, but also the new voters who came out to support the President last November – young people and african americans, many of both demographics were first time voters. It’s hard to count on new voters in an election. Many a campaign has died on the vine waiting for voters who aren’t part of the usual crowd to come out on election day, especially in an off year election such as this one. When the nation’s attention is drawn to politics, to campaigns as it is every four years when we pick a new President, it is easier for parties to root out those voters who aren’t as reliable. However, off-cycle elections are generally decided by a significantly smaller set of voters. Deeds hopes that trend is broken and that Obama’s army of voters from 2008 will come back to the polls and vote again for a Democrat.

A complicating factor here is that the nation’s attention is turned to debates in Washington over healthcare, cap-and-trade, bailouts and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. President Obama is now facing approval ratings among the lowest of his tenure with just 47% of Americans supportive of the job he’s doing. The news is even worse when you look at the primary issue of the day – healthcare. Just 42% of Americans approve of the proposed healthcare plan put forth by Obama and Congressional Democrats. Many are afraid of the prospect of a government run healthcare sector, something Republicans have latched onto in recent months.

With this issue at the top of many families’ dinner table conversation, the election in Virginia is the first real test of how Democrats can sell the reality of their hope and change America to voters, even in a state that is now more blue than red. Many of the promises from Obama’s campaign speeches have rung hollow in this first year of his presidency, and a vitriolic hyper-partisan atmosphere has developed in Washington which has left many Americans questioning exactly what they have gotten out of their sweeping Democrat election in 2008. The trouble Creigh Deeds faces is trying to sell tax hikes and grand promises that probably can’t be fulfilled in this environment, especially to independents, only 18% of whom currently have a favorable view of Obama.

The White House has gone all-in for Creigh Deeds in these final days, even as they’re telling the press it’s too late, clearly indicating they expect to come up empty on election day. If Republicans win back Virginia in a little more than a week, it will equip them with some serious momentum toward the all important mid-term Congressional elections in 2010. Next time, the Democrats might consider trying to win on the issues instead.

Brad Jackson is Senior Editor of The New Ledger.