THE BRITS VIEW VIRGINIA - AT 7:55 P.M. ET:  We've observed here that British journalists have written some of the most perceptive copy on American politics, especially since the coming of The One.

Now, Alex Spillius of London's Telegraph, examines the Virginia gubernatorial race, in which the Democrat is sinking fast, and Obama is getting a chunk of the chilling blame:

President Barack Obama is facing defeat in his first electoral test since he won the White House, with the Republicans leading the polls for the governor's race in the swing state of Virginia.

I wonder if they showed this to Obama, along with the Nobel e-mail.

Just nine months into his presidency, Mr Obama has proved more of a hindrance than a help to the Democratic candidate, Creigh Deeds. Unlike Democrats across the country in 2008, the state senator is keeping a very loose grip on the president's coat-tails.

"Frankly, a lot of what's going on in Washington has made it very tough," he said at a recent forum, adding that voters were "just uncomfortable with the spending, they were uncomfortable with a lot of what was going on".

Mr Obama has made only one appearance with Mr Deeds, and will probably make just one more before polling day. The Democrat is trailing his Republican rival, Bob McDonnell, by nine points in a poll published in the Washington Post last week.

Mr Deeds, 51, may have earned the displeasure of the White House with his honesty, but no one has contradicted his assessment that Mr Obama's massive stimulus bill, and the cost of proposed health care and energy reforms, have raised concern among Virginians.

At the Deeds campaign office in Manassas, there was no sign of Mr Obama in the dozens of posters and banners lining the walls.

That's crushing.  No picture?  Not even a drawing?  A framed autograph?

Now that will get the attention of the White House.  Among the leftist crowd, you know you're in trouble when they don't have your picture up with the other commissars.

The picture is gone.  The new order is coming.

October 11, 2009