President Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm) makes his first Atlanta appearance since his inauguration today.

If you think every Democrat in Georgia that’s running for office this November will want to have a photo op today with Scooter, you’re wrong. 

Former Georgia Governor Roy Barnes has said he’s not available to be there.  The Democratic gubernatorial candidate will be somewhere else in Georgia, about 100 miles away from Obama.

Campaign manager Chris Carpenter released the following statement:

Roy has a busy campaign schedule in Middle and South Georgia on Monday where he’ll be talking to farmers and local law enforcement. Roy’s priority is to continue traveling across the state, talking to voters about jobs, education, and transportation- his plan to make Georgia work.  Uh Huh.

In July, a poll by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Inc. showed that Obama has a meager 37 percent approval rating in the state of Georgia. The president’s popularity with Independents, in particular, has also decreased significantly since his election in 2008.

Governor Sonny Perdue will be available to greet the President planeside when Scooter lands in Georgia.   Mr. Perdue’s spokesperson Bert Brantley said that the governor had to juggle his schedule to be able to greet the president.

This is nothing new in Georgia politics.

In 1996 Democrat Michael Coles was running against Republican Newt Gingrich for the 6th congressional district seat.   Mr. Coles shunned President Clinton at rallies in Atlanta and Macon.

Mr. Coles is a legendary Atlanta entrepeneur who entertained political aspirations a decade ago.  He now lives in Montana.  He shared these thoughts:

In 96, I stepped out of the private arena and ran against Newt Gingrich for the house. I ran as a Democrat. I think the difficult thing for anyone in Georgia – if you run as a Democrat- is to separate yourself from not being a national Democrat, because Georgia Democrats like Zell Miller and Sam Nunn are cut out of a different cloth and that’s how I wanted to be seen. I wanted to be sure, if I was going to lose that race- -I wasn’t going to be indentified as a national Democrat.

One Democratic operative relayed to Hullinger that Governor Zell Miller wanted to be with President Clinton during an Atlanta campaign rally.  Sadly for the Governor, Mr. Clinton was unpopular in Georgia at the time.

Instead of Governor Miller appearing on stage with Bubba, Zell Miller hid out in the crowd. 

The Governor did, technically, make it to the rally, that sly old fox.

Not only are Democrats trying to avoid being seen with Obama, they’re trying to avoid each other.

With Mid-term Elections coming up quickly, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi did the Washington two-step around questions on ABC’s “This Week” about the ethics charges facing two Democratic members of the House. The Democratic game plan for the Mid-terms seems to be “every man for himself.”

Pelosi told ABC This Week’s new Liberal anchor Christiane Amanpour:

I’m totally out of the loop.  It is independent. It is confidential, classified, secret, whatever. We don’t know what it is.

And just as San Fran Nan is desperately trying to distance herself from the graft and corruption of her fellow House Dems, so have numerous democratic congressional hopefuls chosen to distance themselves from the current unpopularity of their Party’s leadership.  I’m shocked.

According to Madame Speaker:

Our members are the best salespersons for their own districts.   They’ve been elected there. They know the constituents. 

And their constituents know them…and that’s the Democrats’ biggest problem.

With voters already outraged about the economy, the graft and corruption of New York’s Charlie Rangel and California’s Maxine Waters have the Democrats scrambling in a last-ditch effort to maintain their Congressional majority.   The fact that two Democrats are headed to rare trials in the full House seems to be handing the Republican Party much need ammunition for the upcoming battle.

 Jonathan Allen, congressional correspondent for Politico opined:

I think historically one of the best ways to win control of Congress is to say the other guys are corrupt. 

Especially when there’s proof, Jonathan.

So, if they can get their act together, the Republicans are being served up this election on a silver platter.   And the Democrats? Well, their hopes for keeping control of the House may rest on three things:  money, distance, and promises.

The Democrats have raised the most campaign money.  Of course, a bunch came from Soros, and a bunch probably came from overseas like Obama’s campaign donations.

Pelosi confirmed the monetary advantage on ABC’s This Week:

We have a two-to-one advantage money-wise.  So, we feel very confident about where we are.

Second, the Democrats are painfully aware that keeping their distance from each other may be essential to ensure the preservation of their congressional majority.  Additionally, Obama has assured Democratic members of Congress that he will do anything he can to help them survive their fall elections, even if that means staying away.

And all the Democrats breathed a sigh of relief when he announced that.

The third thing is, despite charges from Republican spokesmen such as Minority Leader Rep. John Boehner that Speaker Pelosi has not kept her 2007 promise to “drain the swamp that is Washington, D.C.,” the current action by the Ethics Committee, however harmful to the Party’s prospects, may actually be the greatest proof that she has.

The problem with Pelosi using Rangels’ and Waters’ punishments as proof that she’s cracking down on corruption, is that fact that, right now, it looks like both will just get slapped on the wrist.

It has taken Obama less than two years to alienate his own political party.  How awful a President do you have to be to accomplish this in such a short time?  Bush was a second term lame duck president with poll numbers in the 30 percentile before he got the brush-off from Republican candidates.  Scooter hasn’t even finished half of his first term yet.

Unprecedented.

Sources:  11alive.com, abcnews.go.com