Va. Gov: Reading roundup - great analysis on Deeds' victory..

If you're still trying to wrap your head around Sen. Creigh Deeds primary victory then you're in good company, and there's plenty of help out there.

Political reporters from across the country are working to make sense of the Virginia Democratic gubernatorial primary where Deeds dusted the early frontrunner with the Northern Virginia name - Brian Moran - and the Clinton confidant with endless energy and cash - Terry McAuliffe. 

We've got some great analysis here with the voices of Sen. Mark. R. Warner, memories of Sen. Jim Webb's primary victory, President Barack Obama deep interest in the race and vow to campaign here - along with gaffe-happy Vice President Joe Biden. 

Here's the place to start - a pair of Washingtom Post articles that look at the epic collapses by Moran and McAuliffe. 

First Moran - a snippet: 

"He did not connect," Sabato said. "He's subdued compared to his brother. Very pleasant, nice guy -- I think everybody likes him. But when you're voting for a governor, you look for someone who clearly has leadership abilities, and they just didn't come across."

Click here for more details on Moran's focus on McAuliffe and his loss to Deeds. 

Now McAuliffe - a snippet: 

But a former adviser to Secretary Clinton said the connection "was clearly not an asset. I don't know whether it was a liability." Why? "It's now been nine years since [Bill Clinton] left office," this strategist said. "He never won the state. His wife got trounced there. Polling may have shown him to be popular, but there's no real evidence that he or his wife were ever electoral forces in the state."

A Deeds adviser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk candidly about the contest, put it differently, suggesting that while the former president remains very popular with Democrats, his ability to command votes for someone else has become more limited. "I think Clinton's numbers are solid," he said. "I just think -- has it worn out its welcome as a major motivating factor for Democrats?"

Click here to find out why McAuliffe's candidate experiment folded up like a card table.

Then there's this takeout from RealClearPolitics that provides and excellent view to why McAuliffe's outsider status in Richmond didn't end up being the huge asset that his team thought it would be - a snippet.  

"McAuliffe was an outsider candidate of ‘change,' who wanted to ‘shake things up,'" said Bob Holsworth, a political analyst and author of the Virginia Tomorrow blog. "But other than ‘shaking up' Republicans, Virginia Democrats are pretty happy with the way things are going for them politically -- the last two governor races, both Senate seats, the majority of the state's congressional delegation. When things are going this well, you promote from within and don't need an outsider."

 

Click here if you want to see why McAuliffe's pitch didn't land with voters.

 

Time is also taking a look a the race, including Barack Obama's deep interest in the race - a snippet.

 

Though he starts out from behind, Deeds is confident he'll catch up. "Money-wise we'll be fine," he says in a phone interview. "We're already putting money in the bank. We've got a united party, Terry and his friends will be with me on this journey. Warner and Webb are also powerful proven fundraisers. And Barack Obama has more than just a little bit of interest in this race."

Indeed, within hours of winning the nomination Deeds was on the phone with the President and the Vice President, both of whom pledged their support and said they would campaign for him.

Click here for a good outside Virginia take on the race from Time...

And finally - for now - a Politico story - that looks at Deeds victory and the issues that Moran and McAuliffe tried to race at the last minute. A snippet.

As the cautious and moderate choice in a state known best for cautious moderation, Deeds fit well into Virginia’s Democratic mainstream and offered little fodder for the two suburban candidates to use to scare off liberal base voters.

 

The one area where they tried — tardily, in the final days of a race in which Deeds was surging — was on guns. Both Moran and McAuliffe sought to paint Deeds as insufficiently supportive of firearms restrictions, but the attacks had little effect in a state where grass-roots Democrats have demonstrated little concern for their leaders’ apostasy on the gun rights issue.

Here's the Politico takeout on Deeds victory. 

And the quote of the day has to come from the Politico story:  “Northern Virginia voters consider themselves political pundits.”