WaPo: Primaries may impact the fortunes of Obama's White House

[spanone]

President Obama plans to do his best to ignore the primary voting Tuesday, traveling to Youngstown, Ohio, for another attempt to focus attention on jobs created by the Recovery Act.

But a smattering of important races across the country could have an impact on the fortunes of Obama's White House, especially as the president's political advisers prepare for the general election in November.

Perhaps no race has as much symbolic significance for Obama as the Democratic primary in Pennsylvania between incumbent Sen. Arlen Specter and Rep. Joe Sestak. According to the most recent polls, the two are locked in a virtual tie as they go into Tuesday's voting.

A Specter loss would be viewed by many as a defeat for Obama, even though the president remains highly popular among Pennsylvania's Democrats. That's because Obama was personally involved in wooing Specter to the Democratic Party and promised support in his bid to stay in the Senate. One of the final ads Specter is running features the senator visiting Obama.

The White House signaled more than a week ago that the president would not make another campaign trip for Specter in the final days of the primary race, perhaps wanting to avoid a repeat of the presidential-visit-followed-by-loss sequence that occurred in January when Republican Scott Brown won the open Senate seat in Massachusetts just days after Obama campaigned there for Democrat Martha Coakley.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/17/AR2010051702149_pf.html

[NRaleighLiberal]

1. More an example of poor judgement to support Specter in the first place.

Moving to the right is NOT the way to fix things in this country.