[DotNetDevelopment] SqlCommand INSERT into smalldatetime column

[jtaylor]

I'm trying to insert a row into a SQL Server table but I keep getting
a "Conversion failed when converting character string to smalldatetime
data type." error.

This code works:
            sqlCmd = New SqlCommand("INSERT INTO tableName" _
                                            + " (colDate, colCount)" _
                                            + " VALUES ('1/9/2010
12:00:00 AM', 1)" _
                                    , connSQL)
            sqlCmd.ExecuteNonQuery()

While this does not:
            sqlCmd = New SqlCommand("INSERT INTO tableName" _
                                            + " (colDate, colCount)" _
                                            + " VALUES ('@Date', 1)" _
                                    , connSQL)
            sqlCmd.Parameters.Clear()
            sqlCmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("@Date", "1/9/2010 12:00:00
AM")
            sqlCmd.ExecuteNonQuery()

What am I overlooking?

VB.NET & VS2005