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"A big week for President Obama as voters head to the polls. He’s not on the ballot, but the results of some key races may be seen as a referendum on his policies. CBS News Senior White House correspondent Bill Plante has the latest. Good morning Bill."
"Good morning Harry. New Jersey and Virginia hold elections for governor tomorrow, and a Democrat now has that job in both states. But that seems likely to change in at least one of them, and maybe both, and that would be bad news for President Obama." (CBS News)
Tuesday is an important day for U.S. President Barack Obama, as he hopes Democrats can hang onto their gubernatorial seats in New Jersey and Virginia.
In the Garden State, Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine is locked in a dead heat with Republican challenger Christopher Christie. In Virginia, a state that surprisingly went to Obama a year ago, Republican Bob McDonnell is outdistancing himself from Democrat Creigh Deeds.
We’re taking a look at perspectives on the races from ABC News, MSNBC, FOX News, NPR and The Guardian.
President Obama has campaigned on three separate occasions for Corzine. ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos talks about why it is so important to the White House that the New Jersey seat doesn’t go to the GOP.
"New Jersey is their best chance for a win tomorrow night. It is a solid Democratic state, even though the economy is in trouble there, the president is still personally pretty popular and they want to avoid the sweep at all costs because they’re afraid that will be seen as a verdict on the president’s first year and could affect this debate over health care in the Congress."
The hosts of MSNBC’s Morning Joe asked NBC’s Chuck Todd if the president is taking a risk by campaigning so hard for Corzine in New Jersey.
"Is the White House running a risk by having the president up there in such a high profile way?"
"I think they would run the risk if they didn’t have him there and Corzine lost by a couple of points…I think it would have been a bigger mistake if he would have tried to wash his hands of all of this."
FOXNews.com says even if Obama is very popular in some states, it does not guarantee other Democrats in these states will be easily elected.
“The status of these... races has raised questions about the power of Obama's coattails -- in Virginia, Deeds is trailing even though Obama remains relatively popular.”
NPR’s Mara Laisson notes that a landslide win for McDonnell in Virginia can signal Obama about the current sentiment of some of the independent voters who voted for him last year.
“Virginia in particular is a state that the president turned blue for the first time in more than 40 years in 2008, he spent a lot of time there. I think that if the support of independents drops out for the Democratic candidate, which it seems to be doing, and Obama can’t motivate the same voters who came out for him so enthusiastically in 2008, it will be seen as a rebuke to the president."
With a different perspective, The Guardian’s Michael Tomasky says Tuesday’s elections are being blown way out of proportion as far as how they concern Obama.
“Gubernatorial elections are more about the candidates and the state -- the state of the state, you might say -- than they are about the president…all this punditry about these races is mostly nonsense.”
So what do you think? How important should Tuesday’s elections be to President Obama?
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