February 08, 2010 10:14 PM UTC

Romanoff Picks Fight With President Obama

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• by: Colorado Pols

The AP reported Friday:

President Barack Obama’s visit to Denver later this month has some Democrats upset.

The president is headed to Denver Feb. 18 to raise money for Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet. Bennet’s primary challenger, former House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, says the state party should insist the president hold an event for Romanoff supporters, too.

“Many of my supporters were among the most active organizers for President Obama during the 2008 campaign and they remain staunchly behind the president,” Romanoff wrote in a letter Friday to state party chairwoman Pat Waak.

“Unfortunately, the current plan of events during the president’s visit has sent a clear message: ‘Support the appointed incumbent Senator or do not be part of the president’s visit to Colorado,” Romanoff wrote…

Romanoff was considered a likely candidate for the Senate seat when it came open last year as former Sen. Ken Salazar became Interior Secretary. But Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter chose Bennet, who was superintendent of Denver Public Schools.

Romanoff said in his letter that there is “growing frustration” among Democrats that the party heavyweights are backing Bennet.

Here’s what we’ll say about this: it remains a fact that Barack Obama is considerably more popular than Andrew Romanoff, and there is a difference between making yourself anti-establishment (good idea) and anti-popular President (much less solid ground). This move is fraught with risk of backlash, of reasonable dissent giving over to Romanoff vs. everybody–as we’ve said before, if there’s no compelling difference driving that rebelliousness, it’s going to crash and burn.

Not unpredictably, we see GOP-leaning editorial boards are already carrying Romanoff’s torch.

While there is a sentiment in the abstract that the Democratic Party shouldn’t take a formal position on a primary, that doesn’t mean the President can’t pick a favorite if he chooses. Ultimately, Obama wants to make sure this seat stays with a Democrat, and if he thinks that Bennet is the more likely one to do that, then his interests lay in supporting him. Disagree as you will, but Bennet is just one of many incumbent Senators Obama will campaign for, and the poll numbers urgently indicate that–here and around the nation–there’s no time to lose.

The rest of the commentary we leave to you.