OBAMA IN VIRGINIA NEXT WEEK--VP SPECULATION...

Obama, Richmond, VA, Next Thursday? Not Necessarily What It Looks Like... by Mark Ambinder of The Atlantic Monthly

CBS News's Jeff Greenfield and I each have independent Democratic sources who say that an advance team for Barack Obama is in Richmond, VA preparing for a campaign event next Thursday. To conjecture, of course, would be easy. Gov. Tim Kaine lives and works in Richmond... but Virginia's a swing state; it's not unusual for Obama to campaign there. Or maybe it's an event for Michelle Obama.For some reason, I don't think this is IT -- THE vice presidential announcement.

It could happen somewhere else... on another day..-- Wednesday -- in another state... and not involve anything related to Virginia. Maybe Richmond is a stop on the vice presidential tour -- a tour that begins elsewhere the day before.But: unless he's planning a convention week surprise, Obama has to announce his vice presidential nominee next week. Obama will be in Nevada on Saturday and Florida on Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday's schedule is unknown to me at this point.... (ellipses added for emphasis!)

Another potential clue: a Democratic research firm spent part of last week quietly focus grouping the political skills and attributes of Kaine and Gov. Mark Warner last week, two people familiar with the results say.

One of the sources said that the Obama campaign had conducted the tests; the other source would not disclose the identity of the organization conducting the focus groups but did agree to confirm the results.

The sources do not have direct ties to either Kaine or Warner, to the Democratic National Committee or to the Obama campaign.

They said that the focus group was held in a conference room in Norfolk, a city in Virginia's eastern Tidewater region, a huge swing area of the state.

Warner came off well; Kaine did not, with respondents saying that he lacks substantive accomplishments and kisses up too much to Obama.

No comment from the Obama campaign, but even if it was a campaign-connected firm -- pollster Joel Benenson has done regular work in Virginia, perhaps they testing to see whether Kaine or Warner should be featured in television advertisement.