Lately, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs has spent a lot of time telling us that today’s elections don’t really matter.  According to him, they’re just a bunch of small, local elections with little bearing on the national scene – certainly not a referendum on Obama’s presidency.  The problem Gibbs faces, and the reason he continues to sound like he took PR lessons from the Iraqi Information Minister, is that Obama has done everything in his power to contradict him.

Just look at all the trips.  Team Obama has been running all over the East coast endorsing, and stumping for, Democrat candidates in Virginia, New Jersey, and New York.  Joe Biden has been on the trail as well, putting in appearances in New York and New Jersey.   Even Bill Clinton has gotten in on the act, visiting Virginia and New Jersey.

If your head is starting to spin, here’s a handy way to look at it.

In New Jersey:

• Obama has visited at least four times, including the day before the election.
• Obama appears in Corzine’s ads, which have taken to using the “Yes We Can” slogan
• Top White House brass, like David Axelrod and Patrick Gaspard paid a worried visit to Democrat candidate John Corzine in August
• When things didn’t change, Obama sent Joel Benenson, his top pollster, to run the Corzine campaign due to “concerns”

In New York

• Obama sent Vice President Joe Biden to stump for the Democrat candidate, Bill Owens
• The White House negotiated failed Republican candidate Dede Scozzafava’s endorsement of Owens

In Virginia

• Obama, Biden, and Clinton have all campaigned in VA for Democrat Creigh Deeds
• Obama’s “Organizing for America” group is operating phone banks for Deeds
• Obama’s “Organizing for America” group sent mailers to 300,000 Obama voters, urging them to go vote for Deeds
• The DNC has spent six million dollars on the Deeds campaign

After all of that, is it really feasible that Obama views these elections as nothing more that local politics?  Even Bill Clinton couldn’t bring himself to swallow that lie.  The former President has apparently failed to tow the company line, saying ”With the world watching, this race will be seen as a referendum on President Obama’s agenda.”

It’s all part of another disastrous miscalculation on the part of Obama and his team.  Had the President reigned in his enormous ego, kept his mouth shut, and let the elections play out, he could have made the claim that it had nothing to do with him.  As it stands, he, his staff, and his advisers have their hands all over these races.  He’s injected himself into them at every opportunity.   If his involvement doesn’t pay off, making the assertion that those races were somehow not linked to the President is completely ludicrous. 

Still Gibbs will get out there and wave us along with a cheerful “there’s nothing to see here.”  Obama’s cronies in the mainstream press will repeat the lie, hoping to make it true. 

Those of us who are actually paying attention will stand back and stare in amazement, instantly transported to that rooftop in Baghdad, watching the Iraqi Information Minister as the U.S. tanks roll down the street behind him.  “They’re not even [within] 100 miles [of Baghdad]. They are not in any place. They hold no place in Iraq. This is an illusion … they are trying to sell to the others an illusion.”

- Robert Laurie