Lost in Virginia Democrat gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds’ “not-ready-for-primetime” performance in his debate against Republican Bob McDonnell was the bigger news: ladies and gentlemen, we have our first Democrat candidate running away from Barack Obama faster than you can say, “Poland and Prague, you’re on your own.”

At yesterday’s debate between Deeds and McDonnell, Deeds was asked whether he was an “Obama Democrat” (and let’s be clear — Meet the Press host and debate moderator David Gregory meant it as a softball question). Deeds’ answer? “I like Barack Obama personally. He’s a smart guy, he’s an innovative guy.” Pressed on the issue, and perhaps hoping Deeds would pull a Biden and call Obama “clean,” as well, Deeds said, “I’m a Creigh Deeds Democrat.”

Did I mention that the debate was held in Northern Virginia, the most liberal outpost in the state? We got a taste of what a “Deeds Democrat” looks like when he was surrounded by press after the debate, in which he also waffled on taxes. He flipped and flopped in a way only a Democrat feeling increasingly penned in could.

But the bigger news is that a major Democrat political candidate — a man who has actively sought Obama’s support for fundraising and political turnout in parts of Virginia, a state recently thought to be deep purple if not outright blue — can’t run away from the party’s poster child fast enough. And Obama has only been in office for nine months. Watching Deeds try to handle himself yesterday, you got the feeling he’d have appreciated defending his own college thesis or agenda as governor… if he ever had either.