On Thursday, I asked if the Blagojevich scandal would wreck Barack Obama’s nascent presidential honeymoon. The next day, The Hotline, an influential newsletter for political insiders, asked the same question, signalling a potential shift in the conventional wisdom:

Could Pres.-elect Obama’s honeymoon be over before 1/20? For the first time since 11/4, RNC emails are filling our in-boxes, suggesting they see a chance to knock some shine off Obama’s platinum-plated approval ratings.

— First, Obama’s attempts to try and ride above the Blago story aren’t working. Not only has his PR approach drawn loads of criticism, but there’s now growing speculation about whether his team was really as hands-off w/ Blago as he’d reported. The fact that his normally ubiquitous CoS has been out of sight recently only intensifies the focus on Rahm’s involvement.

— Then there’s the bailout fall-out. Another failed attempt at bi-partisanship means another bad day for the markets. That Pres. Bush has little to no capital on Capitol Hill isn’t surprising. But what about Obama? Despite his calls for protecting Detroit, he did little to publicly pressure Congress to forge a deal. Will he now put pressure on the WH to release TARP funds? Or will he wait for Bush to make the first move? At this point, it looks like the WH may already be warming to that option.

— Either way, it seems like the Obama team is going to have to re-evaluate their ability to truly stay above the fray for the next 30+ days.

There’s still no sign of a decline in Obama’s honeymoon-esque approval ratings, but media coverage continues to relentlessly associate Obama with the scandal despite a complete lack of evidence of any wrongdoing on the part of the president-elect or his associates.

In addition, the Republican National Committee, which never stopped criticizing Obama after the campaign ended, has gotten increased traction with its incessant drumbeat of demands for answers to a never-ending list of questions about Obama and Blagojevich. Here’s the newest RNC web video titled “Questions Remain”:

This is turning into an interesting test of whether Obama can break the Clinton paradigm of scandal coverage early in his administration…