Associated Press: Obama Seems To Be Hurting Democrats
Who would have thought, after Obama’s anointment as President and the subsequent media fawning, that in the midterm elections he’d be a liability to his party rather than a boon?
WASHINGTON – The role of endorser in chief isn’t working so well for President Barack Obama.
Sen. Arlen Specter became the fourth Democrat in seven months to lose a high-profile race despite the president’s active involvement, raising doubts about Obama’s ability to help fellow Democrats in this November’s elections.
The first three candidates fell to Republicans. But Specter’s loss Tuesday to Rep. Joe Sestak in Pennsylvania’s Democratic senatorial primary cast doubts on Obama’s influence and popularity even within his own party — and in a battleground state, no less.
And don’t forget Obama’s lack of influence on Creigh Deeds in Virginia, Jon Corzine in New Jersey and Martha Coakley in Massachusetts.
Obama distanced himself from this race in Pennsylvania in its closing weeks, and that was no doubt a cold political calculation. He knew which way the political winds were blowing and he didn’t want his fingerprints on yet another loss. But the fingerprints are there, whether he likes it or not.
And this part of the article is key:
Obama’s track record also raises the question of whether he may be hurting candidates he supports by motivating his foes — such as tea party supporters — to vote.
I think that’s exactly right, and we’re even seeing it right here in North Dakota.
Senator Byron Dorgan retired because he knew he could no longer keep up the charade of being a moderate Democrat while simultaneously supporting Obama’s far-left agenda in Washington DC. The same is true of Rep. Earl Pomeroy, who flirted with retiring and taking a gold parachute into the life insurance industry before finally resigning himself to a 10th re-election campaign.
Pomeroy, a nine-term incumbent who usually cruises to re-election victories, suddenly finds himself the underdog in the polls. And that’s because Obama has pushed so far to the left that a lot of Americans who were on cruise control and not paying attention have awoken.
And they’re making a difference.
Tags: arlen specter, Barack Obama, Byron Dorgan, creigh deeds, Earl Pomeroy, election 2010, joe sestak, jon corzine, martha coakley, pennsylvania, primaries
