Posted on 05/18/2010 2:52:04 AM PDT by Liz
President Barack Obama says he loves Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) — just not quite enough to hazard an 11th-hour political trip to Pennsylvania for an ally of convenience increasingly viewed as unlikely to win. Just last year, the White House was crowing about Specter’s conversion to the Democratic Party, and Obama pledged, “He will have my full support. . .”
Tuesday’s primary is telling a different story: Once thought to be an unalloyed asset for most any Democratic candidate, Obama’s personal involvement is no longer guaranteed – or guaranteed to succeed. In close to a dozen contests, Obama’s intervention hasn’t paid dividends — whether in picking winners in a party squabble like Pennsylvania, recruiting candidates for targeted seats, or on the stump in the final days of close contests in Massachusetts, Virginia and New Jersey.
It’s a phenomenon that illustrates how even Obama is struggling – and often failing — to control the same political forces that dislodged veteran lawmakers like Sen. Robert Bennett (R-Utah) and Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-W.Va.). With voters angry and channeling their discontent toward Washington, even the president doesn't command as much power over the electorate or strike as much fear in the hearts of his own party.
Tuesday’s crop of primaries and special elections vividly illustrate the challenge for Obama: the number of races where he can have a positive impact has been narrowed by 18 months of constant political warfare, Democratic electoral defeats and his own missteps.
Some candidates don’t want Obama. Others, like Specter, want him — but are deemed too shaky to risk Obama’s direct involvement. “It’s hard to see how he pulls this thing out,” said one top Obama aide of Specter, by way of explaining why Obama would not be in the Keystone State before Specter’s Tuesday Democratic primary showdown with Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Penn.). “Public and private tracking [polls] are all running away from him.”
Increasingly, White House officials view a Specter win as a long shot, made possible only by massive African-American turnout in Philadelphia. Specter’s campaign tried to woo Obama to the city as late as last week. But the White House politely rebuffed them several times, saying the president simply couldn’t carve out the time for a 45-minute flight north, according to people familiar with the situation.
That means the 80-year-old Republican-turned-Democrat will have to settle for Obama’s image on a campaign ad proclaiming “I love Arlen Specter” – and a weekend conference call the president held with black Pennsylvania clergy. Vice President Joe Biden, a close friend of Specter’s who helped engineer the Pennsylvanian's switch, will be in Philadelphia Monday night for a commencement address but had no plans to appear with his former colleague. --SNIP--long read
(1) No photos with candidates.
(2) Don’t stand too close to candidates at rallies.
(3) Do not mention Democrat and the candidate's name in the same sentence.
(4) Do not mention healthcare and if you have a cold or a cough, stay in the WH.
(5) Under no circumstances will rally entertainers sing or play, "Chicago, Chicago, that Toddlin' Town."
(6) Do not request foods that are served with hot sauce.
(7) All contributions from the DNC will be returned unopened.
It looks like his personal involvement is increasingly seen as guaranteed to fail.
Today’s the day Benedict Arlen gets his walking papers
Adn I cant wait to see the look on the dumbasses face
Pathetic.
I wouldn’t want to be in a foxhole with BHO.
It’s a rainy morning in SE Pennsylvania. That won’t help candidates with lukewarm support. It doesn’t bode well for Specter.
Ol’ Arlen can now move into Dodd’s place in Ireland and practice “Scottish Lawâ€.....
You’ll know Arlen lost when the MSM doesn’t report it. I’m betting on them treating him as a non-person, ala the old Soviet Union; airbrushed right out of the picture.
Here’s hoping Snarlin’ Arlen will run as an Independent.
Other than himself, I can’t think of anyone that was helped by his involvement. Certainly Mass senate and NJ and Virginia were not.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2181685/posts
Specter to buck party, vote for stimulus ($6.5b pay to play?)
Scraton Times ^ | February 09, 2009 | BORYS KRAWCZENIUK
EXCERPT
“Well, of course I am,” Mr. Specter said when asked if he’s worried about the conservative backlash. “But (President) John Kennedy had it right. He said, ‘Sometimes the party asks too much.’ And this is something I think is necessary for the country. It goes beyond politics. It goes beyond the Democratic or Republican position. It’s the right thing for America.”
Mr. Specter said he would have supported the package even if Democrats had not added $6.5 billion in additional money for the National Institutes of Health to the final version of the bill.
Mr. Specter had sought the money for years, and had mentioned that he wanted the money in the bill when he met with President Barack Obama last week.
“That’s only one small part ... That’s not determinative in my mind,” he said.
The stimulus vote could create “a political problem,” he said, but “I thought the public interest was so important that I have to take whatever problems it brings me.”
That means the 80-year-old Republican-turned-Democrat will have to settle for Obama’s image on a campaign ad proclaiming “I love Arlen Specter” – and a weekend conference call the president held with black Pennsylvania clergy.
Uh .... 'Black Clergy'?
What happened to 'separation of church and state'?
( I know. Different rules for 'some folks'.)
Poor Arlen. You'd have to have a heart of stone not to take some schadenfreude from his entirely self-created situation. Adios loser!
Actually, if Arlen Spector loses to Sestak today, he should run as an independent candidate to insure that Pat Toomey will become the next Pennsylvania US Senator!!! And....what a glorious paypack to POTUS (throw Arlen Spector under the bus!!!) Sweet!!!
Poor Arlen-—so many promises made by his DemocRat friends and so many of them broken.
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