Double Dog Dare Ya

The Boston Herald is having a grand old time talking up Scott Brown.  Today's shot across the bow is aimed not at Coakley, but President Obama:

Surging GOP Senate candidate Scott Brown yesterday warned President Obama to "stay away" from the Bay State during his roiling race against Democratic rival Martha Coakley and not to interfere with their intensifying battle in the campaign's final days.

"He should stay away and let Martha and I discuss the issues one on one," Brown said. "The machine is coming out of the woodwork to get her elected. They're bringing in outsiders, and we don't need them."

Really.  Nice. As Steve M. points out, this kind of trash talking only comes out if you let it.

First of all, how weak is President Obama right now? He's so weak that he's hearing this kind of trash talk in his own party's regional base, for Pete's sake, and from a little pipsqueak upstart in the opposition party. In late November 1994, when Bill Clinton was told that "he'd better have a bodyguard" if he dared to travel to North Carolina, that was seen as a sign of the president's weakness in the wake of devastating midterm elections -- but North Carolina was part of the GOP's Solid South, and the speaker was a powerful old bull of the Republican Party, Jesse Helms. This? Well, imagine if a Democratic challenger in Alabama or Mississippi said in the midst of a tight race a few years ago that President Bush better not show up in the state. The howls of outrage would have been deafening. The Democrat's patriotism would have been questioned. And it would have been political suicide.

But this is just going to be shrugged off.

Beyond that, I see the GOP engaging in furious goalpost-moving. What the Republicans seem to be suggesting is that it would be somehow unfair for a Democratic president to campaign ... for a Democrat! The implication -- and you know we'll hear this from our idiot media if Obama does show up and Coakley wins a less-than-blowout victory -- is that that's cheating, and that a victory partly fueled by a presidential visit doesn't really count. (So does that mean we get do-overs on every vote cast by the Republican Senate that was elected in 2002, given that their victory came in part because George W. Bush and Karl Rove decided to nationalize those midterm elections?)

A last thought: It's not clear that Obama will show up.

The Calvinball World Cup continues.  The GOP changes the rules and the Village dutifully nods and says "Yeah, you guys have a point!" every damn time.  The "Obama has already lost!" meme is gaining a hell of a head of steam at this point and there are zero indications they are fighting back.  Scott Brown is basically daring a Democratic President to show up and campaign for a Democratic Senate candidate in f'ckin' Massachusetts, and that's without factoring in the whole concept of saying "you're an outsider, we don't need you" to the President.  (The racial undertones are bonus points.  We don't want your kind round here, boy.)

Obama needs to show up.  Preferably at Scott Brown's front door.  Preferably with a piece of paper that says "I'm sorry for being a douchebag" on it and a blank under it for Scott Brown to sign on camera with an Official White House Pen.

[UPDATE 4:20 PM]  This went out today from the White House:


It's a start.