Natalie Tennant, the Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate seat in West Virginia, is running against Shelley Moore Capito, a Republican.
But her television ad sounds as though her opponent is Barack Obama.
As the TV screen shows a brightly lit White House, in a voice-over she asks, “Where do they think their electricity comes from?” Then a hand appears to pull down a switch on a high-voltage power box. As the White House goes dark, candidate Tennant declares, “I’ll make sure President Obama gets the message!”
Take that, Obama!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doe_nTBQ4MY
This may be the most extreme example of the length Democratic candidates are going this year to distance themselves from the president. But all over the country, Democratic candidates are telling Obama, “Thanks, but no thanks,” when it comes to campaigning for them.
While many Democrats are trying to distance themselves as much as possible from the president’s policies, Obama isn’t helping that strategy. In a speech a week ago, he said “I am not on the ballot this fall,” but he made it clear that his policies are. “But make no mistake,” he declared, “these policies are on the ballot. Every single one of them.”
Oops! You can imagine the shudder that went through a bunch of Democratic campaign offices when they heard this. When David Axelrod, a top Democratic strategist, appeared on “Meet the Press” the following Sunday, he admitted that the comment was a mistake.
Yes, it was a big one. And Republicans were quick to jump on it. Very quickly, Obama’s gaffe was being quoted in television ads in the most hotly contested states. Naturally, Republicans are doing their best to identify their opponents with the president’s most unpopular issues, such as the Affordable Care Act and his pro-amnesty immigration plan.
Of seven Senate seats rated as toss-ups by the Cook Political Report, Obama lost four of them (Alaska, Arkansas, Louisiana and North Carolina) in 2012. He also lost in three states Democrats currently hold, but where Republicans are expected to win the Senate contest next month (Montana, South Dakota and West Virginia).
In all seven states, Obama’s approval numbers are at near-record lows. No wonder Republicans are delighted to be running against him — and Democrats are eager to distance themselves as much as possible from their president.
If the Republicans win all seven of the seats that are currently held by Democrats, but are in states where Obama lost two years ago, they’ll gain one more seat than they need to win a majority in the Senate.
So what are the Democrats doing about it? Willie Brown, the black former mayor of San Francisco, says that the President should forget about appealing to white voters and simply appeal to blacks. “I’d have Obama on an evangelistic schedule of black churches all over the country,” he advises. “I think he really should go to the black base. I don’t think there’s any other place I would trust he wouldn’t create an adverse reaction rather than a positive reaction.”
In three critical contests Republican ads portray the Democratic incumbent as “the deciding vote” for Obamacare. No wonder all three candidates — Sen. Mark Pryor in Arkansas, Sen. Mary Landrieu in Louisiana and Sen. Kay Hagan in North Carolina — are putting as much distance as they can between themselves and their president.
Will their strategy work? We’ll find out in three weeks.
Until next time, keep some powder dry.
Chip Wood was the first news editor of The Review of the News and also wrote for American Opinion, our two predecessor publications. He is now the geopolitical editor of Personal Liberty Digest. This article first appeared in PersonalLiberty.com and has been reprinted with permission.
