The New York Times on Sunday published a front page piece informing readers that to help Democrats in the upcoming midterm elections, Barack Obama might completely stay away from their districts.
If even the New York Times is beginning to understand just how poorly the President is thought of in many parts of the country, he's in a lot of trouble.
At the paper's website, the article was titled "To Help Democrats in the Fall, Obama May Stay Away."
At the top left of the paper's highly-read Sunday front page, the headline was "Obama To Offer Help From Afar In Fall Election," and the contents were equally surprising:
As lunch was served in the Roosevelt Room of the White House one day last week, President Obama assured the nine Democratic members of Congress sitting around the table that he would do anything he could to help them survive their fall elections.
Even, he said, if it meant staying away.
"You may not even want me to come to your district," Mr. Obama said, according to guests, nearly all of whom hold seats that Republicans are aggressively seeking.
That's how the piece began. Further in were more shockers:
Democrats who are on the ballot hope to make the election about issues other than Mr. Obama, including the benefits to their constituents of the health care and stimulus legislation and the argument that voting Republican means a return to the policies of President George W. Bush.
That line of thinking is largely shared inside the West Wing, where advisers are trying to determine the balance between using Mr. Obama to inspire voters and keeping him from becoming a defining negative presence. Already, Mr. Obama is popping up more as a target in Republican campaign advertisements than as a positive presence in Democratic ones.
To be sure, the piece included great detail about the planned strategy for the upcoming elections including money being spent and how Michelle Obama will be used to help Democrats.
But one has to seriously wonder how such a piece not only made it into the Times, but was also placed so prominently on Sunday's front page.
