The outcome of this week's electioneering for places on the executive of the 1922 Committee - the trade union for Tory MPs - matters because of what it will tell us about the collective attitude of the Tory footsloggers to the coalition in which they are enmeshed.
But, barring some remarkable change in attitude, Obama is mostly irrelevant except to the extent that he can make matters worse by luring Republicans into a phony tax-hike deal.