I noticed the one congressional district that Deeds lost on Tuesday was Tidewater, McDonnell represented that area in the State legislature for years, and he’s still very popular there. It’s a huge area, with multitudes of active duty and retired military (McDonnell served as an officer in the Army). Dems need to perform very well in Tidewater in order to blunt Repubs traditional support in central, southern and rural areas of the Old Dominion, this could be McDonnell’s ace up his sleave. Fingers crossed.
I hope you’re right about Deeds being weak in the Tidewater area, because, as you stated, the RATs can’t win VA without doing well in Tidewater (especially without the huge black turnout from 2008, which will certainly not be replicated this year).