Robin Carnahan Snubs Obama, Obama Snubs Carnahan?

When Obama came to St. Louis to do a fundraiser for Claire McCaskill and the DSCC, it sparked a lot of speculation about why Robin Carnahan wasn't being involved. That led to the inevitable lame excuse time: according to the St. Louis Beacon, "White House aides told reporters traveling with the president that Carnahan had already scheduled her trip to Washington when Obama decided to come to St. Louis". 

Presumably, a Presidential fundraising event is important enough to tweak your schedule a bit. Planning for the event has been in the public eye for a month, so it is VERY difficult to believe that Carnahan couldn't work around it. The bottom line is that if she wanted to be there and was welcome, she would have attended.

Where there's smoke, there's fire. 

Is Carnahan betting against Obama? She has been making an active rhetorical effort to distance herself from the President, whose popularity is declining and whose attempts to 'help out' in the recent special elections mostly failed. If the situation deteriorates even further, Carnahan might take the desperate (but unlikely) step of having her policies follow her rhetoric and challenge Obama on something substantive. 

Then again, the snub may be mutual. The White House may not be interested in candidates who have it both ways, supporting liberal policies but 'playing the outsider' and attacking Obama for political gain. Carnahan's declining poll numbers may provide another excuse, but even then, supporting her would have to be a better way to use your resources than fundraising for the wrong election cycle (2012). There are claims that the DSCC will be using some of the money to help Carnahan, but when and how much are unanswered questions, which still don't explain why the money isn't going directly to her.

No matter the cause, the effect is the same: expect even more strained relationships in the Democrat camp over the next eight months. Desperation does not foster good feelings.

Comments

[GOP KICKS ASS]

All I know is that Claire's choice of a pink jacket (tent) was a bad choice - she looked like a giant pig.