Dave "Mudcat" Saundersdoes not sugarcoat things, and he didn't like the anonymous leaks coming out of the White House about Democrat Creigh Deeds matchup against Republican Bob McDonnell.
Mudcat was on a conference call today and he didn't seem to mind putting up a R-rating on the "a source" story from this morning's Washington Post.
Here's the meat of the story:
David "Mudcat" Saunders, who gained political fame helping Democrat Mark Warner reach out to rural voters during Warner's successful 2001 gubernatorial bid, told CNN Friday that trying to blame Deeds is "bulls**t" when Democrats around the country are "just tired of politics."
"The Democrats right now are a real bruised brand right now where I am," Saunders said in a phone interview from his home near Roanoke. "There was so much energy put into last year's race, everybody's just burned out. You can't anybody fired up."
In a story published Friday, a senior administration official told the Post that the Deeds campaign ignored their advice to embrace the president, which the official claimed would have boosted the Democratic candidate's lackluster support among the African-Americans and young voters who supported Obama in 2008.
Saunders rejected that argument. Embracing Obama - who does appear with Deeds on ads running in some parts of the state - might not have hurt the candidate in Democratic-leaning areas, he argued, but with the contentious economic debates going on in Washington, the presidential stamp of approval wouldn't have turned him into an instant frontrunner.
In southwest Virginia, he said, embracing the president would have been a "devastating" political move for Deeds, who is trailing Republican Bob McDonnell in the polls.
"They're making the assumption Virginia is a blue state, and it's not," Saunders said of the administration. "It's not a red state either. The very best that can be said about Virginia is that it's light purple. For them to say if he had listened to us they would win, that's chickens**t. That's Monday morning quarterbacking."
Wait chickens**t? Wasn't that Terry McAuliffe's energy plan?
Click here to read the whole CNN story about Mudcat.
I spent twenty-two years as a Naval Officer where I had to work in several countries where we were seen as targets in their local shooting gallery.
I have met both candidates long before either were running for Governor. I previously served on the Deeds-McDonnell recount and was a campaign volunteer for Bob McDonnell, back in the 1990s.
Mr. McDonnell, most often takes the side of the big multinational corporations, as in his support for adding toll roads to our existing highways, and selling the operating rights to Chinese-Australian owned Transurban, so that they can charge us tolls to drive on our own roads for the next sixty years.
I trust Creigh Deeds. I would be honored to have him as my wing man, if I had to go into battle. When Creigh says he has got your six (covering your backside, for you civilians) then you can bet your life, that Creigh will follow through.
Creigh Deeds has a record, that is a MILE LONG, standing-up for the Virginia working Man.
When the chips are down, Creigh Deeds will ALWAYS place the interests of our citizens, FIRST.
Posted by: J. Tyler Ballance | Friday, October 23, 2009 at 11:12 PM