Michelle Obama & Jill Biden here today, but where’s Barack?

Michelle Obama and Jill Biden will visit a recreation center in Southwest Philly today to rally voters just six weeks before the presidential election.

Michelle Obama's stop this afternoon follows recent local appearances by vice presidential candidate Joe Biden and Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean.

But the top of the ticket — Barack Obama — has not been in Philadelphia or the four surrounding counties since June. His campaign says Obama — who has appeared in other parts of the state — will come to the area, but no events are scheduled.

Two big-ticket local fundraisers were originally planned for September. The invites for the back-to-back events read "September (TBD), 2008." But anxious insiders say the date may be pushed back to October.

Meanwhile, Republican John McCain has visited the region at least five times since the April primary. On Monday, he rallied a crowd on the steps of the Delware County Courthouse in Media.

Is Obama taking a risk by ignoring his Philadelphia base? Just last week, Gov. Rendell said he wanted to get Obama in Philly for a day and take him to six neighborhood rallies. But it's not clear if that will happen.

Local Obama supporter City Councilman Curtis Jones Jr. said Philly, a city Obama won easily in the primary election, is likely not a campaign priority right now.

"As I understand classic political strategy, you go to your base early, you move away from your base to garner marginal areas, then you come back to your base in the last 30 days," said Jones.

And political consultant Ken Smukler noted that Obama is spread thinner than candidates in previous years because he is campaigning in states that have traditionally gone to Republicans, like Montana, North Carolina and Missouri.

"It's one of the cons of stretching the number of battleground states out....It creates far greater demands on Obama's time," Smukler said.

But Smukler said he expected some big local events before the race is over.

"Given the latest polls coming out of Pennsylvania, I really expect Obama will start focusing on Pennsylvania in the next couple weeks," he said.

An NBC/Mason-Dixon poll released this week gave Obama a 2-point lead in Pennsylvania.

In 2004, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry came to Philly and the suburbs more frequently, making at least six stops in the area between the primary and general elections. He won the state by 2.5 percent.

Obama spokesman Zach Friend said that voters are getting energized even without the candidate here. He noted that the Obama campaign has a massive grassroots volunteer organization. And Rendell and Mayor Nutter, who both supported Sen. Hillary Clinton in the primary, are now stumping for Obama.

"We do not simply rely on one person to deliver our message," Friend said.

Friend also pointed out that despite more visits and more spending in the state recently, McCain trails Obama in the polls.

According to the Wisconsin Advertising Project, between Sept. 6 and 13, Obama spent $948,000 on political advertising in the state, while McCain spent $1,612,000.

Today's Obama-Biden rally in Southwest Philly is at the Francis Myers Recreation Center, 58th Street and Kingsessing Avenue. Doors open at 4:30 p.m. *