President Obama went to Massachusetts on Sunday to make a last ditch effort to save the seat of the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, and salvage the future of his party's health care bill in the Congress. Whether it works is by no means clear.
In a state where his own poll ratings have tumbled, even though it is one of the bluest states around, Mr. Obama implored voters to back state Attorney General Martha Coakley.
"Where we don't want to go now is backwards," said the President.
"We've got so much work left to do," he added.
The White House line was that Democrats were going to win that race, though some polls were indicating a Republican win was a definite possibility on Tuesday.
But the media narrative right now is clear, as the Monday morning lead on the Associated Press story - which will dominate newspapers around the nation tomorrow - describes the White House as "panicky", saying that Democratic officials were scrambling to save health care legislation.
That perfectly frames where things are right now - health care legislation will be on life support if Scott Brown defeats Martha Coakley in Massachusetts.
Reading the Boston papers in recent days, it has been very interesting to detect some of the rumblings beneath the surface that seem to have caught Democrats by surprise.
For example, the approval ratings of President Obama are in the low 50's, while the positives on the Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick are in the low 40's - and he is up for re-election this year.
Health care meanwhile is drawing support of less than 40% in the Bay State.
In other words, there are a lot of angry voters there.
