The wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round, round and round …. all by themselves, apparently:

 Don’t look for Democrats in fiercely contested Virginia legislative elections to join President Barack Obama as he brings his campaign-style American Jobs Act bus tour to three cities there.

For that matter, don’t expect Tim Kaine, the former Democratic National Committee chairman and Virginia’s governor two years ago, to join his old ally either.

In fact, according to the AP, the wheels on the bus are going ’round some Congressional districts that Democrats are struggling to keep:

Republicans say Democrats, particularly Senate incumbents trying to preserve a narrow majority in the Nov. 8 elections, are so afraid to embrace the unpopular president that Obama changed his Virginia itinerary to avoid stops near targeted Democrats.

A senior Virginia Democrat told The Associated Press on Oct. 7 that the president’s itinerary at the time called for stops in Danville, Charlottesville, Newport News and Fredericksburg.

Virginia GOP Chairman Pat Mullins contends the White House changed course because most of those cities are in or near districts where Democratic incumbents battling for political survival are distancing themselves from the unpopular president.

The state Democratic Party scoffed at this report, but the Washington Post reported the same thing (via Jim Geraghty):

The White House had considered stops in Danville, Newport News, Charlottesville and Fredericksburg. But prominent Democrats in Virginia — where Obama’s approval rating hovers around 50 percent — encouraged the White House to alter the schedule so he would no longer visit districts where members of his party were involved in tight elections. Instead, Obama will speak at a high school in Emporia on Tuesday, and Langley Air Force Base in Hampton and a fire station in Chesterfield County outside Richmond on Wednesday. He will be joined by first lady Michelle Obama in Hampton.

Tim Kaine may not be appearing with Obama in Virginia, but the NRSC wants to see these two old friends and political allies get back together:

The RNC has released its own ad, taking Obama to task for his publicly-funded “Debt-End Bus Tour” campaign ride while his jobs bill gets spurned by both Democrats and Republicans:

If Democrats like Tim Kaine and Claire McCaskill in MO, both of whom campaigned for Obama in 2008, feel the need to maintain distance from the sitting President thirteen months before the election in order to avoid the photo-ops that would launch campaign ads for their opponents, it says something about just how toxic Obama has become in key swing states.