Louisiana senator says she'll skip Obama speech

Aamer Madhani | USA TODAY

President Obama is heading to the Port of New Orleans on Friday to tout the need to boost exports and inject more money into U.S. infrastructure projects.

But one Democratic lawmaker — Sen. Mary Landrieu — will be skipping the speech.

Landrieu, who is expected to face a tough re-election battle next year because of her support of Obama's health care law, told The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune that she will fly from Washington to New Orleans with Obama on Air Force One but has a long-standing commitment that will force her to miss the speech.

But some political analysts suggest that the decision to skip the speech might be motivated in part by a desire to avoid images of her standing side-by-side with Obama, which Republicans could use in advertising later on. Republican Rep. Bill Cassidy and Rob Maness, an Air Force veteran, have announced they will run for the GOP nomination against Landrieu.

"I think any image of her with him would be used by Cassidy over and over and over again," Kirby Goidel, director of the Public Policy Research Center at Louisiana State University, told The Times-Picayune. "If I were on the Cassidy team, I would try to turn her into Barack Obama."

Obama's visit to the Port of New Orleans comes after he set a goal in 2010 of doubling exports by 2015. At this point, the U.S. is far off pace from reaching that goal.