In what would be perhaps the most symbolic defeat for the president in the November midterms, Alexi Giannoulias, the Democratic senate candidate for Illinois, is only a percentage point ahead of his Republican opposition Mark Kirk.
Mr. Obama has already made one fundraising appearance in Chicago to rally support for Mr. Giannoulias, 34, a former state treasurer who has suffered from his inexperience and the revelation that his family's bank, now failed, lent money to mobsters.
"He is not as popular nationally or in Illinois as he was two years ago," said Kent Redfield, a professor political science at the University of Illinois. "There is a national mood, a worry about the economy and the country's future, that is bleeding into Illinois.
"It says a lot about how bad he and the Democrats are doing that this seat is in play. It's not a seat they should have to worry about."
Redfield's comments were featured in a October 13, 2010, article by the London Daily Telegraph.
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