Obama won't campaign for Giannoulias
President Obama will not campaign for Democrat Alexi Giannoulias in his bid for Obama's old Senate seat. Giannoulias' opponent is strongly pro-Israel Republican Marc Kirk (pictured). Sen. Dick Durbin slipped into the West Wing last week to ask Rahm Emanuel for White House help in saving Barack Obama’s old Senate seat.There are a couple more reasons why Obama wants nothing to do with Giannoulias here.
But he didn’t leave with any ironclad commitments.
Durbin told Emanuel that Democratic nominee Alexi Giannoulias could use some serious presidential intervention in his uphill race against Republican Rep. Mark Kirk.
At the moment, the White House seems open to the idea of losing Obama’s old seat rather than putting the president’s prestige on the line for Giannoulias, the brash and boyish Illinois state treasurer — and onetime Obama basketball buddy — whose campaign has been rocked by the financial meltdown of his family’s bank.
Durbin said Emanuel was sympathetic to his pleas but ultimately noncommittal, telling him that the White House was “considering the race, weighing their options and weighing a decision on what to do.”
Emanuel, a former congressman from Chicago, tried but failed last year to get Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan into the race. Now, he told Durbin, it’s up to Giannoulias to prove his campaign has enough “viability and strength” to warrant Obama’s involvement.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:04 AM
2 Comments:
I wonder what Giannoulias has on Durban, or Obama for that matter.
I live outside of Chicago and I'm voting for Kirk!
Yep.... where's Johnindenial when you really need him? They could use a couple of drags of weed in the White House.
Heh
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