Let the recriminations begin! The Obama administration drops a preemptive blame bomb on Creigh Deeds, the Democratic candidate for governor in Virginia — a man who appears headed for defeat in a couple of weeks. Deeds’s supposed big mistake? Not embracing a president whose approval numbers have sagged ever since Deeds won the nomination:

Sensing that victory in the race for Virginia governor is slipping away, Democrats at the national level are laying the groundwork to blame a loss in a key swing state on a weak candidate who ran a poor campaign that failed to fully embrace President Obama until days before the election. . . . Privately, administration officials said they see almost no way for Deeds to win on Nov. 3.