The "R" Word

On "Washington Unplugged" today, Marc Ambinder said he thinks the New Jersey gubernatorial race has the biggest potential to be a referendum on President Obama, considering how much support the president has given Democratic candidate John Corzine.

"He has spent a lot of time there. He has spent a lot of time in the White House recording robo-calls," Ambinder told moderator John Dickerson. "This is kind of the one race where he has invested a lot of himself in."

The CBS News political analyst said this is the race that he will be watching tonight.

Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank, meanwhile, joked about media and analysts reading too much into these races.

"Of course it is a referendum," he said, "because we will all be sitting here saying it is a referendum on way or the other."

"We are always looking for a story here and let's face it these are kind of random contests," Milbank said. "If everything goes one way," he said, analysts will have more to base the referendum theory on.

Watch the full analysis above. "Washington Unplugged" appears live on CBSNews.com each weekday at 12:30 p.m. ET. Click here to check out previous episodes.