Softballs and Soft Targets

First the softball. Haiti relief. All Obama has to do is commit our resources and send the Clintons to the tarmac at Port-au-Prince and he makes out like a bandit.

I mean, seriously; who is going to criticize him for sending help? And the few that do will be eaten alive by the rest of the country. Obama can let someone else fight that battle and remain above the fray.

And we all know Obama could use a win right now.

Now, the soft target. Obama does a cameo for Martha Coakley in Boston.

Venue: Cabot Center (NU campus)

Audience: 1,500. Most high school gyms will hold that many. Actually, the capacity of Cabot is 2,500 but they said attendance was 1,500. I'll spot them the extra 1,000 as a layout problem.

Then again, they claim another 2,500 attended at remote locations with video feed.

But where is the man who packed 2,000,000 in Grant Park? Or 20,000+ in Germany? Where's the rock star draw power?

After all, the list below of indoor venues in Boston indicate that much larger facilities were available.

Area's Largest Sports Facilities
(ranked by maximum seating capacity)

Fleet Center 18,624
Worcester Centrum Centre 14,800
Sylvio Conte Forum 8,500
Paul Tsongas Arena 6,500 (Ooh! Named for a Democrat.)
Matthews Arena 6,000 (also an NU facility)
Reggie Lewis Athletic Center 5,000
Walter Brown Arena 3,806
Hart Center 3,600
Clark Athletic Center 3,500
Cabot Center 2,500

Cabot Center was clearly a soft target. Add 1,500 college students making noise and you've got a nice "sixth man" for the photo op.

But it's best not to call twenty-somethings an Obama shoe-in. This graphic shows the mindset of Harvard students in November of last year:

Even in a small hall with rabid admirers Obama seemed off his game. Maybe someone finally told him things are not going well for his administration. The "unprecedented" president is looking strangely mortal at the moment.