WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS - AT 8:01 A.M. ET:  Mr. Obama made an emergency visit to Las Vegas two weeks ago to boost the sagging political fortunes of Senate Majority Harry Reid, who is running for reelection this year, and who has lost favor with his Nevada voters.

Apparently, the president's visit didn't do the trick.  The Las Vegas Review-Journal has the story:

WASHINGTON -- During his whirlwind visit to Las Vegas two weeks ago, President Barack Obama mentioned U.S. Sen. Harry Reid by name four dozen times, gave him a big hug and talked him up as if he was a long-lost brother.

The hug is key.  They do the same thing in organized crime.

But as Reid faces an uphill path to win re-election to a fifth Senate term, Obama's enthusiastic endorsement does not appear to have improved the Senate majority leader's standing among constituents, according to a new poll conducted for the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

A larger percentage of voters surveyed (17 percent) said they would be less likely to vote for Reid following the president's visit than said they would be more likely to vote for him (7 percent). Seventy-five percent said Obama's visit would have no effect on how they vote.

"Reid was not helped, and Obama was not any more popular than he was before he came to the state," said Brad Coker, managing director at Mason-Dixon Polling & Research.

COMMENT:  Damn these voters who think for themselves!  What's a liberal to do with these people?

It wasn't very long ago that a visit from Barack Obama brought expectations of huge political dividends.  Now a yawn is the more common reaction. 

March 1, 2010