THE LAST GREAT HOPE - AT 10:56 P.M. ET:  It's reported that President Obama is pulling out all stops for profoundly unpopular Governor Jon Corzine of New Jersey, whose head is on the chopping block in Tuesday's election.  The president will be back in the state campaigning for Corzine, and Corzine is expressing his passionate love for the president, as The New York Times lovingly reports:

NEWARK — In the final hours of this intensely fought campaign, supporters of Gov. Jon S. Corzine are knocking on doors here with a message for people who voted for Barack Obama: Your president needs you.

In an effort they are calling “Yes We Can 2.0,” Corzine campaign officials are devoting millions of dollars and thousands of volunteers to try to bring back to the polls those 442,000 New Jersey residents who had never voted before Mr. Obama’s election last November. They are flooding them with phone calls, mail and text messages, hoping to contact each of them at least eight times before Tuesday.

With the president significantly more popular than Mr. Corzine in New Jersey, the governor has lashed himself to Mr. Obama, and will appear beside him Sunday on the president’s third visit to the state to campaign on Mr. Corzine’s behalf.

Whether the first-time Obama voters turn out could make a crucial difference in this race, with most polls showing Mr. Corzine and his Republican opponent, Christopher J. Christie, still running neck and neck two days before the election.

COMMENT:  Let us translate the above into everyday English:  The story means either one of two things:  1) Late polls show Corzine has a good chance of winning, and Obama wants to be known as the man who came into the state and saved the governor, or 2) late polls show Corzine in trouble, and Obama wants to throw a Hail Mary pass to try to save him, knowing that governorship losses in both Virginia and New Jersey would be humiliating to the president, the titular head of his party.

I don't think there's a third possibility. 

There is an implied subtext to this contest, and it's race.  The close, passionate identification with the president sends a signal to New Jersey's large African-American population that it owes Obama the loyalty of turnout...so he won't be embarrassed on election day.  That's a powerful message.

My own guess, and it's only a semi-informed guess, is that Corzine will pull it out, primarily because there's a third candidate running who's draining votes from the Republican, Chris Christie.  Dems have a way of holding New Jersey, sometimes by the neck.  But we could be pleasantly surprised.

October 31, 2009