The undead corpse of PPH seems deeply puzzled by the planned Obama visit. And quote machine Mark Brewer is equally flummoxed. (Why is he considered an authority on these things, again?)
But it's actually pretty simple: Both President Obama and health care reform are popular in Maine. At the same time, the state's two Republican senators not only voted against reform but behaved abominably throughout the process--moving the goalposts, working for momentum-sapping delays and spewing misinformation.
So President Obama is coming to Maine, at least in part, to demonstrate that disingenuousness and bad faith have a price. (Though you can be sure he won't put it quite that way.)
He's not looking to wound Sen. Snowe or Sen. Collins, per se. But he is making it clear that intransigence and obstruction aren't freebies. There's the possibility of a political cost.
And whether they admit it or not, that's a message both pols will probably keep in mind in the future.
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