Obama Works Vegas for Harry Reid

It's hard to imagine Sen. Harry Reid going to Caesars Palace in Las Vegas for any reason other than a fundraiser for his own campaign. The Senator's slight frame, pale, thin hair and bespectacled face evoke more of a Wal-Mart greeter than a wild and crazy guy. But last night, the poll-challenged but challenger-free Senate Majority Leader got a heavy lift in the hip department from the president of the United States (that's hip as in "cool," not hip as in "replacement").

As Obama strode onto the stage of Caesars' Colosseum for the "Good Fight" fundraiser for Reid and the Nevada Democratic Party, he took to the mic like a Vegas show master. "How about Bette Midler? Right? Sheryl Crow...Give it up for our outstanding performers!"

Obama praised Reid for excelling at his day job as Senate leader, one the president compared to "herding cats," and he reminded the crowd that they love him -- at least they did when they helped send him to the White House last November. He ticked through his policy initiatives -- health care reform, creating jobs, combating mortgage fraud -- and then gave his pitch for his Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor, a "brilliant" woman from the South Bronx.

Interrupted by applause for the New York borough, Obama riffed, "We got everybody here. We got Searchlight, we got South Bronx. All right, I'm not going to shout out everybody's..." Stopped again by the crowd's laughter, the president asked mockingly, "Where was I?" And continued.

Reid didn't really need Obama's help raising cash last night. He's a well-known money maker for himself and is usually flown around the country to help other Democratic candidates fill their coffers. But a startling poll from Mason-Dixon last week showed that Reid could use some of Obama's magic with voters, if not his money. The president scored nearly 20 points higher in his favorability rating with Nevadans than Reid did, despite their almost identical policy positions on health care, the economy and other big-ticket topics.

What's so different for Nevada voters about Harry Reid, the unlikely Senate majority leader who grew up without running water in Searchlight, Nevada, and Barack Obama, the unlikely president who grew up without a father in Hawaii and Indonesia? According to Obama, there's not much difference at all. "Harry's story" is just as improbable as his own, he said, casting Reid alongside Sotomayor and himself as the stars of the American can-do story.

"That's what we're doing in Washington every day," Obama said as he wrapped up after nearly 20 minutes. "Figuring out how can we give a helping hand to ordinary Americans, like Sonia Sotomayor's mother; like a young Harry Reid who needs a scholarship, maybe; like a Barack Obama who might need that inspiring teacher in a school."

Stopping one last time for applause from the crowd, the president finished, "We can only do it with Harry Reid, and I can only do it with you."