Decision Virginia

Vice President Joe Biden will come to Richmond this Thursday and will make the most of his visit. Not only will the VP headline a lucrative fundraiser for Gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds, he will also speak on the campus of J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College at an event designed to highlight the success of the Recovery Act. (also known as the stimulus).

While President Barack Obama continues to enjoy relatively high approval ratings, they have tracked back a bit since the early highs of his presidency. Much of the slippage seems to be connected to voters perception of the progress being made in turning around the economy. It appears that this event featuring Biden will be designed to show how the stimulus is being put to work on the ground level in places like Richmond.

The Vice President is an interesting spokesperson for the administration’s efforts to show their efforts are working in the wake of comments he made last week where he said that they “misread how bad the economy was.”  Biden’s comments forced President Obama to respond in a separate interview where he said that his administration did not “misread” the economic situation, but instead they had “incomplete information”.

Regardless of the words, the Obama team is scrambling to restore the public’s confidence in their handling of the economy. The Biden visit comes against the backdrop of rising unemployment and the rumors that a second (third if you count President Bush’s initial plan) stimulus could be on the way.

The state of the economy will also play an important role in the race for Governor of Virginia.  It can’t hurt that in addition to raising some cash for Creigh Deeds that Mr. Biden will attempt to make the case that Democrats are still the party best capable of turning the economic situation around. There is no doubt that while the Vice President has work to do for Team Obama, it is no coincidence that his effort can be helpful to Team Deeds as well.

**UPDATE**

According to the Deeds campaign, the Senator will NOT appear with Vice President Biden at the stimulus event at J. Sargeant Reynolds. Campaign officials said this is a White House policy event, not a political event.

**UPDATE ends**

We will have complete coverage of Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to Richmond here and on NBC12. The official release regarding his trip can be found after the jump:

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