Barbara Boxer is desperately trying to gin up enthusiasm for her reelection race — so she’s begging Democrats to be like the tea-party people. Here’s how the Los Angeles Times puts it:

Boxer called on Democrats to be as energetic and enthusiastic as “tea party” supporters.
“We’ve got three opponents in this race and they’ve been beating up on me every single day,” she said, never criticizing her GOP rivals by name. “You know it.”
“Speaking of the ‘tea party’ people, I think it’s great that they are active and excited and ready to go,” she said. “My question to you is are you ready to go toe-to-toe with them, cup by cup by cup? I am.”

So the president flew in to Los Angeles. Mickey Kaus had this welcome: “Obama to Save Boxer Like He Saved Corzine!“

Maybe Obama read Mickey’s post, because he was not in a good mood when he got on stage. First he bristled at being interrupted by hecklers. Then he mocked his critics:

And we all have a stake in cleaning it up. We’re all, after all, Americans. Not Democrats, not Republicans first — we’re Americans first. So we should all have a stake in seeing success in cleaning this situation up. And yet, after driving our economy into the ditch, they decided to stand on the side of the road and watch us while we pulled it out of the ditch. They asked, why haven’t you pulled it out fast enough? (Laughter.) I noticed there’s like a little scratch there in the fender. Why didn’t you do something about that? (Laughter and applause.)

In other words, it was just another Obama speech. Well, Senator Boxer may have plenty of time to brew tea come January.