There are growing signs the White House is trying to distance itself from what it now expects to be an embarrassing defeat of incumbent Sen. Arlen Specter at the hands of Rep. Joe Sestak, a candidate the Obama administration staunchly opposed.

According to the Washington Post, CBS chief Washington correspondent Bob Schieffer told the local CBS affiliate in Philadelphia on Monday: "I have been told on background that the White House is preparing for a Specter loss here, and that the president doesn't want to be associated with that."

There are other indications the White House, which has been a dedicated Specter ally ever since he bolted the Republican Party, is bracing for his defeat.

The Specter campaign had hoped the president and the vice president would join him for last-minute campaigning, but neither will do so. Aggravating the snub is the fact that Vice President Joe Biden is in Pennsylvania to speak at his daughter's graduation ceremony, but will not campaign with Specter.As recently as last week, Biden said he would be available to campaign with the Republican-turned Democrat "as needed."

The president also will come tantalizingly close to Pennsylvania. The MSNBC's FirstRead blog reports "And to add insult to injury, the president is traveling … on Election Day, and he’s literally flying over Pennsylvania to stump in Youngstown, Ohio, a town just across the border."