Some Dems won’t join Obama in swing through Va.

Obama targeted North Carolina and Virginia, both swing states he won in 2008 that are vital to his re-election next year, for his second bus excursion aimed at pressuring Congress to enact pieces of his $447 billion jobs bill.

The president will appear at Greensville County High School in Emporia on Tuesday afternoon, a military base in Hampton Wednesday morning, and at a suburban Richmond firehouse Wednesday afternoon before flying back to Washington.

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.

State Democratic Party spokesman Brian Coy scoffed at Mullins’ conclusion.

“Really, do you think anybody here has the kind of clout that the president would change his schedule?’’ Coy said.

Kaine was among the first nationally to endorse Obama’s long-odds campaign in early 2007, was instrumental in helping Obama become the first Democrat to carry Virginia in a presidential race in 44 years, and later agreed to Obama’s request to head the Democratic National Committee. In April, Kaine resigned his DNC post to seek the U.S. Senate seat next year after Democratic Sen. Jim Webb chose not to run for a second term.

But Kaine won’t accompany Obama because of “a full schedule of events in Northern Virginia, including events for legislative candidates who are up for election in a couple of weeks, which could not be rescheduled,’’ Kaine campaign spokeswoman Brandi Hoffine said.