With debate set to begin next week in the U.S. Senate on gun control legislation, President Obama will hit the road twice in coming days to sell his plans to voters, trying to use the bully pulpit to revive a bid for tougher gun laws conceived in the wake of the mass shootings last December in Newtown, Connecticut.
The first stop on Wednesday is in Denver, where Mr. Obama seems likely to reference the theater shootings in Aurora last year that killed a dozen people and injured seventy people.
Here was how the White House described the trip:
While in Denver, the President will deliver remarks at the Denver Police Academy where he will continue asking the American people to join him in calling on Congress to pass common-sense measures to reduce gun violence. The President will also meet with local law enforcement officials and community leaders to discuss the new measures the state recently put in place, including closing loopholes in the background check system to keep guns out of the hands criminals and others who should not have access to them.
Next Monday, the President will go to Hartford, Connecticut to speak about gun control; the trips come at a time when his legislative plans for gun control are running uphill in the Senate.
"This is our best chance in more than a decade to take common sense steps that will save lives," the President said last week in a White House event on guns, an event where Mr. Obama gave an impassioned defense of his legislative goals to rein in gun ownership.
"There's absolutely no reason why we can't get this done," the President added.
The problem for the Obama White House is simple right now - they don't have the votes to advance the President's agenda on guns, even though Democrats do control the Senate.
A few weeks ago, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid acknowledged what everyone in the halls of the Congress has known for some time, that the votes aren't there for an assault weapons ban in the Senate - in fact, Reid said backers would be hard pressed to get 40 votes for such a plan.
Democrats have 55 votes in the Senate - which means if they can't corral 40 for an assault weapons ban, there are a number of Democrats who aren't supporting that legislative effort.
Earlier this week, the Washington Post ran a front page story describing how the votes may not even be there for the plan to apply background checks to private gun sales, or for a bipartisan gun trafficking measure.
That wasn't front page news for those of us in the halls of Congress, as it has been apparent for some time that Democrats don't have momentum on gun control in the Congress.
But with that Senate debate now just days away, the White House has obviously decided to ramp up its public relations strategy, getting the President to focus on guns several times with trips to Colorado and Connecticut.
"I ask every American to find out where your Member of Congress stands on these ideas," the President said last week.
The answer is that a majority seem to oppose the President.
We'll see if he can change that in coming weeks or not.
