White House Braces for Specter Defeat............

There are growing signs the White House
is trying to distance itself from what it now expects to be an
embarrassing defeat of incumbent Sen. Arlen Specter at the hands of
Rep. Joe Sestak, a candidate the Obama administration staunchly
opposed.

The Specter campaign had hoped the
president and the vice president would join him for last-minute
campaigning, but neither will do so. Aggravating the snub is the fact
that Vice President Joe Biden is in Pennsylvania to speak at his
daughter's graduation ceremony, but will not campaign with Specter.