Obama in race to save Senate seat

• Loss of Kennedy area would be a major blow to ruling party

BOSTON, Monday

President Barack Obama went on a rescue mission yesterday to try to save an endangered Massachusetts Democratic candidate for the US Senate whose defeat by a Republican could imperil Obama’s sweeping healthcare overhaul.

Mr Obama appeared at a campaign rally in Boston for Democrat Martha Coakley, whose 30-point lead in the polls in December has vanished and who is now in a tight race with Republican Scott Brown before Tuesday’s election.

Speaking to 1,500 supporters gathered in a basketball arena at Northeastern University, Mr Obama ridiculed Mr Brown for his populist campaign tactic of driving around Massachusetts in a pickup truck and attacked him for not supporting a bank bailout tax Mr Obama proposed last week.

“We asked Martha’s opponent, what’s he going to do, and he decided to park his truck on Wall Street,” Mr Obama said. “Let me be clear: Bankers don’t need another vote in the United States Senate. They’ve got plenty.”

A victory by Mr Brown would be a shock upset in the traditionally liberal New England state. At stake is the Senate seat held by the late Senator Edward Kennedy for 46 years, a fact that Ms Coakley raised at the rally.

Meanwhile, fewer Americans believe the presidency of Barack Obama has helped advance race relations compared with a year ago, a Washington Post-ABC News poll suggests.

The poll, published on the holiday commemorating civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr, found 41 per cent now say Obama’s presidency has helped race relations, compared with 58 per cent on the eve of Obama’s inauguration a year ago who said his presidency would help race relations. (Reuters)