Why in the world is Barack Obama going to campaign for Democratic gubernatorial nominee Creigh Deeds in Hampton Roads next Tuesday?

After reading this bombshell in this morning’s Washington Post — “Deeds ignored advice, White House says” — any words of support from Obama’s mouth to the assembled masses will ring hollow.

The post-mortem blame game is always the worst part of any losing campaign.

And, speaking from experience, I can say with confidence that most practitioners of the fine arts of the campaign would rather lose by a lot than lose by a little — when you get swamped, you realize there was very little you could have done differently to change the outcome, and you can mentally shake off the loss and look forward to the next campaign as soon as you recover from your hangover.