President Obama still has a series of campaign events this weekend ahead of Tuesday's Election Day, but it's his appearances off the campaign trail that has Washington watchers wondering whether he's trying to shed his coattails before an expected Democratic drubbing at the polls.
The choice of non-political events the president has selected this campaign season doesn't appear to be doing hopeful Democrats any favors. And with the House expected to lose anywhere from 45-60 Democratic seats to Republicans and the Senate likely to turn a handful or more seats to the GOP, according to the latest polling prognosticators, the president already is setting the bar low for the next two years.
"I'm president and not king," Obama said Wednesday night in a meeting with bloggers meant to shore up what's left of his support. "And so I've got to get a majority in the House and I've got to get 60 votes in the Senate to move any legislative initiative forward."
In the thick of it all, the White House announced that on Thursday Obama would host the Americans involved with freeing the Chilean miners from their underground crypt two weeks ago. One of his biggest events of the past month was the delivery of solar panels to the White House roof.,
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White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said the meeting with the rescuers was scheduled because several U.S. government agencies and private companies in the U.S. were instrumental in helping the miners and it was a story many Americans watched closely.
