US President Barack Obama stepped in on Sunday to try to bolster the Democratic candidate in a closer-than-expected Massachusetts Senate race that has raised Republican hopes of a win — and an opportunity to challenge Obama’s health care reform plan.
Meanwhile, the White House and congressional Democrats scrambled to come up with a fallback plan for health care legislation in case of a loss in today’s special election.
The election will be held a day shy of the one-year anniversary of Obama’s historic inauguration as the first black US president.
But just how much voters’ mood has soured was reflected in Obamat’s decision to rush to Massachusetts to campaign for the embattled Democratic Senate candidate, state Attorney General Martha Coakley.
Despite the state’s long Democratic tradition, polls show Coakley and Republican Scott Brown, a little known state senator, locked in a dead heat. The contest is to fill the seat of the late senator Edward Kennedy, a liberal and leading advocate for health care reform during his nearly 47 years in the Senate. Kennedy died on Aug. 25.
If elected, Brown says he would vote against Obama’s health care bill, robbing Democrats of the 60-vote majority needed to prevent Republicans from blocking it and other parts of Obama’s agenda.
Coakley had led Brown by double-digits in polls after the December primaries. But Brown was able to tap into voter anger and anxiety over budget-busting spending, health care and high unemployment to pull even.
The high stakes were reflected in Obama’s decison to leave Washington at a sensitive time and campaign for a seat that his party has held for more than a half-century. Health care negotiations with Congress are at a critical stage, and Obama has focused on helping Haiti recovery from Tuesday’s quake.
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