With recent polls suggesting that Virginia may go Democratic for the first time since 1964, it’s no surprise that Barack Obama and Joe Biden made their first joint appearance in nearly a month in the Old Dominion:
Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama and his running mate, Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), took their campaign to fast-growing outer suburbs in Virginia yesterday as they appealed for support from the young families and long-distance commuters who they believe could be key to winning the state’s 13 electoral votes.
Police said about 12,000 people crammed Ball Circle, the campus quad at University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, and waited in a deluge for the candidates to arrive, while 14,000 more waited outside.
When he took the stage during a light rain, Obama stepped up his criticism of Republican nominee John McCain’s economic policies and vowed that he and Biden will support renewable energy, health care, education and environmental protection. Obama also criticized McCain’s performance during Friday’s debate. “We talked about the economy for 40 minutes last night, and not once did Senator McCain talk about the struggles of the middle class,” Obama said. He later added, “In 90 minutes, John McCain had a lot to say about me but had nothing to say about you.”
In their first joint campaign appearance since the days immediately after last month’s Democratic National Convention, Biden and Obama chose their location carefully: a small town surrounded by counties that have seen their populations nearly double since 1990.
The rally is the latest sign that the Democratic ticket views the traditionally Republican outer suburbs, as well as Hampton Roads, as battlegrounds in the race against McCain.
Separating Democratic-leaning Northern Virginia from conservative rural areas, the ring of counties that stretch from Loudoun southeast to the Rappahannock River are filled with tens of thousands of independent-minded voters who were drawn to the area by relatively affordable housing, good schools and bigger plots of land.
John McCain, meanwhile, has yet to make an appearance in a portion of Northern Virginia that could very well decide who wins Virginia, and potentially who wins the election:
Corey A. Stewart (R-At Large), chairman of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors, said McCain still has an advantage in the exurbs because voters there lean to the right.
But Stewart is nervous about the Obama campaign’s repeated visits to the region.
McCain “should know that he can’t take Prince William and Loudoun for granted,” said Stewart, who added that he has been “begging” the Republican nominee to visit Prince William.
Gail Gitcho, a McCain spokeswoman in Virginia, declined to comment on the latest Obama-Biden visit or when McCain or his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, would be returning to Virginia
Right now, I’m seeing far more McCain/Palin yard signs in Prince William and Fauquier Counties than Obama/Biden signs, but that may be more of an indication of an apparent disequilibrium between supply and demand than an actual indication of which candidate is doing better in this neck of the woods.
