President Barack Obama made his first foray into the Virginia governor’s race Thursday, rebutting stimulus critics while casting Democrat Creigh Deeds as a pragmatist “cut from the same clothÓ as Govs. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner.

Obama spoke to a crowd of 1,800 at the McLean Hilton, according to campaign estimates. He described Deeds, a Bath County state senator, as similar not only to Virginia’s current and former Democratic governors, but also to Obama himself: Both Obama and Deeds grew up poor, valued education and shared “sort of funny names.Ó