With less than two weeks remaining until the June 25 special election in Massachusetts, President Obama headlines a Wednesday afternoon rally in Roxbury for the Democrat candidate, Rep. Ed Markey. The president’s Massachusetts trip follows a Tuesday night debate between Markey and his young Republican opponent, Gabriel Gomez, whose unorthodox campaign clearly has Democrats worried. And the Boston Globe notes that the president’s recent woes have followed him north from D.C.:

Obama arrives at a difficult moment in his presidency.
Much of his agenda has stalled in Congress and even some Democrats from Massachusetts are pounding him on key issues. Seven months after he was reelected by a wide margin, Obama has struggled to convert any mandate he had from voters into broad changes.
Gun control, one of his biggest priorities, failed in the Senate and most other legislative initiatives appear stalled. Instead of pushing new policies, he has become more reactive, responding to controversies over the IRS targeting conservative groups, the Justice Department’s aggressive app to leak investigations, and the leaking of national intelligence surveillance programs.

Polls show the race relatively close — Gomez is within 7 points of Markey in heavily Democrat-leaning Massachusetts in the latest WBUR-TV poll — and Democrats want to guard against the blunders that cost them a Senate seat in the January 2010 special election won by Scott Brown. Boston Herald columnist Michael Graham suggests an Obama campaign visit may do little to help Markey:

Just weeks ago, Markey had a 17-point lead over Gabriel Gomez according to a Suffolk University poll. A couple of million dollars of campaign ads, weeks of stump speeches and a debate later, his lead was down to seven points in this week’s Suffolk poll. . . .
The scandals “are resonating with independents,” says Suffolk pollster David Paleologos. About half the independent voters in Massachusetts say they believe the president isn’t telling the truth about the IRS scandal or Benghazi. And this was before the National Security Agency “Non-stop Surveillance of Americans” story broke.
Gomez supporters say they feel the momentum. Democrats admit privately that Markey will have to be dragged across the finish line by the party machine, and are rolling up their sleeves.
But the fact that a whistle-stop by Barack Obama is a marginal event in Massachusetts speaks volumes about this political moment.

Highlights of Wednesday’s debate, from WLLP-TV in Western Massachusetts: