posted August 31, 2014 11:40 AM            

Democrats Keep Obama at Distance Ahead of Mid-Term Elections
Friday, 29 Aug 2014

Barack Obama's Democrats are walking a tightrope 10 weeks before US congressional elections: do they solicit the unpopular president's support or shun him as they try to maintain their Senate majority?

The president's party is in a pickle with an anti-Obama wave cresting in competitive states where Democrats must win if they are to keep control of the upper chamber come November.

Even though he is off the ballot, analysts paint an increasingly dire picture with Obama acting as a drag on many Democrats as campaign season kicks off in earnest from this Labor Day weekend.

Obama's overall favorability is under water -- his weekly average is currently 43 percent, according to Gallup -- and Democrats are defending seats in places with some of his lowest approval ratings in the nation, including Alaska and Arkansas, as well as in a handful of others, like Louisiana and North Carolina where his support lags.

Republicans must gain six Senate seats to win back the 100-member chamber, an outcome Democrats fear would crush any Obama effort to push through landmark legislation in his final two years in office.

Some analysts already see lost causes for Democrats defending Senate seats in Montana, South Dakota and West Virginia, three states where demographic changes have led to an ideological shift that now favors conservatives.

That leaves Democrats facing some challenging math, with many of them hamstrung by a leader they most likely would not want accompanying them on the campaign trail, and with Republicans eager to paint their rivals as rubber stamps for the Obama agenda.

"There's no way in heck you're going to see (Obama) in Alaska, Louisiana or Arkansas," David Parker, associate professor of politics at Montana State University, told AFP.

Incumbent Senate Democrats are "putting a lot of distance between themselves and the president" on certain issues, added Professor Merle Black of Emory University.

The million-dollar question for incumbents like Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Alaska's Mark Begich, said Parker, is "how well have (they) been able to establish an independent relationship with the voters of those states?"

Landrieu and Begich have openly knocked the president's energy policy, an issue that has many of their constituents at odds with the White House.

They and other Democrats, including Senator Jeanne Shaheen who is locked in a tight re-election battle in New Hampshire, have also warned Obama that bypassing Congress to take action on the flashpoint issue of immigration could trigger a backlash in November.

"Senator Shaheen believes Congress must address our broken immigration system with a comprehensive fix and would not support a piecemeal approach issued by executive order," Shaheen spokesman Shripal Shah said.

The president's party traditionally takes an election hit in year six of a two-term administration.

But Democrats are particularly "overexposed" this cycle, Parker noted: of the 36 Senate seats being contested, 21 are held by Democrats and 15 by Republicans, with many swing-state Democrats fighting for re-election.

"On top of that, it just so happens the president is unpopular," Parker said. "It's like a triple threat."

One of those swing-state Democrats is incumbent Senator Kay Hagan of North Carolina. Obama gave a speech in the state Tuesday about improving care for veterans, and while Hagan dutifully greeted the president at the airport, she made it clear she is displeased with the commander in chief.

"I have told the president that promises alone aren't going to get it done," she told the American Legion where Obama spoke.

The White House insisted Obama would not be a drag on Hagan in November. And while Obama has yet to campaign for any incumbents this cycle, spokesman Josh Earnest said the president "won't hesitate" to lend his support should the opportunity arise in her tight race.

Where candidates like Hagan and Begich will not shy away is funding. Obama remains a formidable fundraising machine, and he and First Lady Michelle Obama have filled supporters' inboxes with emails seeking contributions for their party.

Democrats are hoping the 2006 race will not prove instructive.

That mid-term election occurred in president George W. Bush's sixth year in office. Bush's popularity was sinking, and he stayed off the campaign trail even while raising millions to help his Republicans avoid defeat.

posted August 31, 2014 11:30 PM            

Obama's campaign no-fly zone
CARRIE BUDOFF BROWN and JENNIFER EPSTEIN | 8/29/14

In an election that Republicans want to make all about President Barack Obama, the White House is determined to make him all but disappear in the battleground states that matter.

The White House is putting the finishing touches on a post-Labor Day schedule that will send the president to states where he’s still popular, such as: Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Illinois and California, Obama officials and Democratic operatives said this week.

But in the red states that will determine control of the Senate, Obama will remain scarce. That means no personal campaign visits to states like Arkansas, Alaska, Louisiana and North Carolina. He may do some targeted outreach through robocalls, digital ads and conference calls, but the campaign plan is clear: Stay away from candidates he’s already hurting.

Obama’s no-fly zone for certain Senate campaigns reflects the deep concern among Democrats about his drag on the national ticket. Obama can’t seem to get his poll numbers out of the low 40s, he’s struggled through an endless stream of foreign policy crises, and he’s the last person that many candidates want to be forced to defend on the campaign trail.

Six years ago, Obama’s massive campaign organization helped to sweep several Senate Democrats, now the most endangered, into office with his appeal to unite political factions.

Now, he’s an attack line.

Across the country, from Alaska and Colorado, to Louisiana and North Carolina, Republicans are citing how often the Democratic incumbent sided with the White House on votes in Congress. It’s a tactic Democrats used to great effect in 2006 when they wrestled back control of the Senate by linking every incumbent to President George W. Bush, who was even more unpopular than Obama.

“He’s going to be an anchor on each one of these Democrats all the way through,” said Guy Harrison, a media consultant for the Republican Senate nominees in Arkansas, Colorado and North Carolina. “They’re trying to grasp every life preserver they can, but the anchor of Obama is still going to pull them down.”

White House officials argue that Obama never would have been deployed to assist red state Democrats, even at the height of his popularity. The better, more effective use of his time is to assist in states with key House races, such as Illinois, Pennsylvania and California, a senior administration official said. Obama still retains strong support in the Democratic base, and he can motivate African-Americans and Latinos like few others can.

“It will ramp up as time goes on,” the official said.

Party operatives also expect Obama to help Democrat Charlie Crist in his bid for Florida governor, and perhaps Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn, who is trailing Republican Bruce Rauner, and Michigan Democrat Mark Schauer, who is trying to unseat Republican Gov. Rick Snyder.

The White House hasn’t made any final decisions on the schedule since the needs around Labor Day could shift by October, the official said.

“We’ll take him anywhere, anyhow, any way,” Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.), the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “Wherever he thinks he can be helpful, we would love to have him.”

Israel and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) briefed Obama on the state of play in House races before the president left for his Martha’s Vineyard vacation. Their requests aren’t as politically challenging. They have asked him to visit New York, California and Illinois, where there are a cluster of races in each state. Obama also has made fundraising appeals through emails, and headlined nine events so far for the DCCC.

The president remains the top draw on the fundraising circuit. He and Hillary Clinton are scheduled to headline a mid-September event for the Democratic National Committee’s Women’s Leadership Forum.

Obama’s message to donors: Liberal voters tend not to show up in midterm elections, as witnessed in 2010, and Washington gridlock is the fault of GOP lawmakers.

“The problem is not that we’re too mean or we’re too partisan,” Obama said at a fundraiser in May. “The problem is that I don’t have enough votes. Full stop.”

But for Democratic incumbents in top-tier Senate races, the Obama association is like a dead weight. His recent trips to states with competitive contests have been fraught with clumsy choreography between the candidates and the White House.

When Obama arrived in North Carolina on Tuesday to speak at the American Legion’s annual meeting, Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan — along with Republican Sen. Richard Burr — greeted him on the tarmac and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

But by the time Air Force One touched down in Charlotte, she had already pulled up the welcome mat, attacking his management of the Department of Veterans Affairs as a means of differentiate herself from the president. In prepared remarks for her own speech to the convention released ahead of the president’s visit — though she didn’t speak until after him — she added that the administration “has a long road ahead to restore the faith and trust of our veterans.”

Thomas Mills, a Democratic strategist who runs the website PoliticsNC, said the visit “didn’t hurt or help her.” But, he added, “my guess is [her campaign] is hoping like hell he doesn’t come back into the state before November.”

Hagan’s opponent, state Rep. Thom Tillis, has made a point of attacking her ties to the president, releasing an ad this week, citing a statistic from Congressional Quarterly that she voted with Obama 96 percent of the time.

Obama traveled to Colorado last month in part so that he could speak at a fundraiser for Udall. But as Obama got to Denver, Udall chose to stay in Washington, to vote for the confirmation of Julián Castro as secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Udall’s campaign said it wasn’t a political decision to skip the event, and other Democrats suggested that neither option was great, since he would have been attacked for skipping a confirmation vote in favor of a fundraiser.

For his opponent, Rep. Cory Gardner, the incident is emblematic of Udall’s campaign. “Nobody has run faster from the president than Mark Udall,” Gardner said. “He sprinted when the president came to Denver in July.”

Udall had already foreshadowed his wiggle out of a joint appearance in January, when he resisted a CNN reporter’s questions about whether he wanted Obama to campaign for him. “We’ll see what the president’s schedule is, we’ll see what my schedule is,” he said. “But Coloradans are going to reelect me based on my record, not the president’s record.”

On the campaign trail, he’s emphasized his independent streak, pointing to his efforts to reform national security surveillance programs. But, Gardner said, it’s all an attempt to distract from the fact that he voted with Obama 99 percent of the time in 2013.

“Mark Udall is one of the Obama senators,” the congressman said, referring to the eight Democrats first elected in 2008. “He simply cannot escape the fact that he’s been at Barack Obama’s beck and call.”

A Gardner campaign video released ahead of the visit features a clip from a 2008 rally where Udall introduced Obama: “Let me utter two really sweet words: President Obama.”

Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska) hasn’t been shy in his efforts to distance himself from Obama, explicitly saying he doesn’t want the president in his state.

Like other Republicans challenging Democratic incumbents, Begich opponent Dan Sullivan is pushing back. On Wednesday, at their first debate, Sullivan called the first-term senator a “rubber stamp” for national Democrats including Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

“It’s a continual theme — 97 percent,” Sullivan communications director Mike Anderson said, referring to the percentage that Begich voted with Obama on issues. “You are a loyal foot soldier for the Obama administration and you haven’t been very effective in getting anything back for the state of Alaska.”

The Democratic campaigns challenge their opponents’ use of statistics showing their candidates voting with Obama since they take into account votes on which the president took a clear position. In 2013, he took a position on 37 percent of the Senate’s votes, and all of the Senate Democrats voted with him at least 90 percent of the time. Another set of data, produced by OpenCongress, tracks the percentage of votes that a senator makes with his or her party. On that list, most of the endangered incumbents are among the least likely Democrats to vote with their party.

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) has focused her efforts to differentiate herself from the president on energy policy — a key issue in Louisiana — and her support for the expansion of offshore drilling and the approval of the Keystone XL pipeline. She has called the administration’s policies “simply wrong.’

Her opponent, Rep. Bill Cassidy, has also chosen to counter that by reminding voters that she sided with Obama on 97 percent of the votes on which he had taken a position.

“The people of Louisiana do not support President Obama 97 percent of the time, but Senator Landrieu does,” Cassidy spokesman John Cummins said in a statement. “Senator Landrieu’s lockstep support has now emboldened the president to be even more extreme, because he knows the Senate will not stand up to him.”

The Landrieu campaign fought back through a series of folksy ads in May, featuring the senator and her father, Moon Landrieu, a former mayor of New Orleans. Capitalizing on her strong family name, her father ran through all the ways she has fought the administration and big corporations like BP on behalf of Louisiana.

Noting that Russian President Vladimir Putin placed Landrieu on a list of American officials banned from traveling to his country, Moon Landrieu whispered to the camera: “And now you know why Putin won’t let her into Russia.”
http://www.politico.com/story/2014/08/2014-elections-obama-campaign-110452.html

posted October 16, 2014 10:23 AM            

Even O'Bomber tee shirts are banned by the Demoscat candidate for Senate in Kentucky.

Imagine that! Campaign workers can't wear clothing printed with the name of the Demoscat Party leader...O'Bomber.

Not only that, but this candidate refused...several times to...to answer a debate moderators question...."did you vote for Barack O'Bomber in 2008 and 2012".

October 16, 2014
Democrats demonstrating shame over Obama support
Thomas Lifson

Having inflicted a monumentally incompetent, ill-prepared president on the United States, Democrats are starting to feel some shame, it appears. Wait, are Democrats even capable of shame? Make that a pragmatic desire to escape their Election Day karma. Whichever it is, Democrats are now treating their support of Obama as something they want to cover-up. Literally.

Taking her unwillingness to admit she voted for Obama to a whole new level, the campaign of Alison Lundergan Grimes in Kentucky reportedly told student volunteer canvassers wearing Obama T-shirts to cover them up! Oh, the shame! College Insurrection reports:

A number of College Democrats who traveled to Kentucky to campaign for Alison Grimes were surprised to learn that the Obama t-shirts they were wearing were considered inappropriate attire.

Victoria Sheridan of the GW Hatchet reported.

Behind-the-scenes moments from the College Democrats’ trip to Kentucky

Many students filled their bags for the trip with t-shirts depicting President Barack Obama and their GW College Democrats shirts with Obama’s name emblazoned on the back.

But it wasn’t until they got to Kentucky that canvassers remembered to be careful not to connect Democratic candidates there with Obama. Alison Grimes, who is running against Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, wanted to differentiate herself from the president and the administration’s policies that don’t resonate with Kentucky residents, like Obama’s policies toward coal mining.

posted October 16, 2014 11:16 AM            

"Did you vote for Barack O'Bomber in 2008 and 2012"?

Silence!

October 16, 2014
Hilarious: Another Dem Senate candidate refuses to answer if she voted for Obama
Thomas Lifson

Let’s hope refusing to let the voters of her state know whether or not she voted for Barack Obama works as well for her as it did for Alison Lundergan Grimes. Daniel Halper reports in the Weekly Standard:

A video tracker for the opposition research firm America Rising asked Democratic Senate candidate Michelle Nunn whether she voted for President Obama in the 2008 and 2012 elections. Nunn, who is in a close race to fill the open Georgia Senate seat, refused to answer the direct question.

It’s hard to see an upside to refusing to answer. She could easily say that she supported her party’s candidate but that she, like many Georgians, is disappointed. Now she looks stupid and evasive.
http://americanthinker.com/blog/2014/10/hilarious_another_dem_senate_candidate_refuses_to_answer_if_she_voted_for_obama.html

posted October 16, 2014 11:45 AM            

And the ratings for Congress are still lower than for Obama.

posted October 16, 2014 11:50 AM            

I have no interest in studies conducted by leftist morons with mid double digit IQs.

Never the less, I notice you didn't post a link to any of those "interesting studies".

posted October 17, 2014 04:05 PM            

That's 3 who want everyone to think they never heard of the Marxist Messiah O'Bomber. Btw, all three are women.

posted October 17, 2014 04:08 PM            

Now do tell, how do you know the studies were done by "leftists"? Same study said "leftists" more likely to be Neurotic in attitude.

Or are all scientists interested in social effects of brain activity "leftist" and unintelligent by definition?

It always amazes how people with no grounding in science dismiss science with such ease. And assume it has political motivation if it doesn't agree with their chosen views.

posted October 18, 2014 08:40 AM            

quote:

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Party operatives also expect Obama to help Democrat Charlie Crist in his bid for Florida governor, and perhaps Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn, who is trailing Republican Bruce Rauner, and Michigan Democrat Mark Schauer, who is trying to unseat Republican Gov. Rick Snyder.

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Schauers ads don`t connect the dots but ones for Snyder sure do

posted December 03, 2014 08:23 AM            

Sen. Landrieu: Democrats 'Walked Away' From My Senate Race
Tuesday, 02 Dec 2014
By Jason Devaney

With Louisiana Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu trailing her Republican challenger ahead of a runoff election later this week, she has accused national Democrats of abandoning her.

Republican Rep. Bill Cassidy held a 15-point lead over Landrieu in a recent poll.

"I am extremely disappointed in the Democratic Senatorial [Campaign] Committee. I've said that. You know, they just walked away from this race," Landrieu said in a Washington Post story.

The runoff election, scheduled for Saturday, came about because neither candidate earned a majority of the vote on midterm election day last month.

Republicans picked up eight seats in the Senate to seize control of the chamber for the next Congress. After that, the DSCC stopped its advertisements in support of Landrieu, leaving her severely outmatched in the spending department: the Post writes that she had about $216,000 from groups to work with, compared with the $1.4 million the National Republican Senatorial Committee will have spent on Cassidy by Saturday's election.

Landrieu first took office in 1997 and has since been elected twice more, but her bid for a fourth term appears in jeopardy.

A Landrieu ad released this week said that if Cassidy wins, the GOP "will impeach" President Barack Obama once the new Congress takes office next month.

Narrated by Rep. Cedric Richmond, the ad asks: "Have you heard the crazy stuff Bill Cassidy, Bobby Jindal, and the Republicans are always saying about President Obama?"

"They have shown our president so much disrespect. They said he wasn't a U.S. citizen, they even sued him — and if Cassidy wins, they will impeach him."

posted December 03, 2014 08:32 AM            

Veteran psychiatrist calls liberals mentally ill
Publishes extensive study on 'Psychological Causes of Political Madness'

WASHINGTON – Just when liberals thought it was safe to start identifying themselves as such, an acclaimed, veteran psychiatrist is making the case that the ideology motivating them is actually a mental disorder.

“Based on strikingly irrational beliefs and emotions, modern liberals relentlessly undermine the most important principles on which our freedoms were founded,” says Dr. Lyle Rossiter, author of the new book, “The Liberal Mind: The Psychological Causes of Political Madness.” “Like spoiled, angry children, they rebel against the normal responsibilities of adulthood and demand that a parental government meet their needs from cradle to grave.”

While political activists on the other side of the spectrum have made similar observations, Rossiter boasts professional credentials and a life virtually free of activism and links to “the vast right-wing conspiracy.”

For more than 35 years he has diagnosed and treated more than 1,500 patients as a board-certified clinical psychiatrist and examined more than 2,700 civil and criminal cases as a board-certified forensic psychiatrist. He received his medical and psychiatric training at the University of Chicago.

Rossiter says the kind of liberalism being displayed by both Barack Obama and his Democratic primary opponent Hillary Clinton can only be understood as a psychological disorder.

“A social scientist who understands human nature will not dismiss the vital roles of free choice, voluntary cooperation and moral integrity – as liberals do,” he says. “A political leader who understands human nature will not ignore individual differences in talent, drive, personal appeal and work ethic, and then try to impose economic and social equality on the population – as liberals do. And a legislator who understands human nature will not create an environment of rules which over-regulates and over-taxes the nation’s citizens, corrupts their character and reduces them to wards of the state – as liberals do.”

Dr. Rossiter says the liberal agenda preys on weakness and feelings of inferiority in the population by:
•creating and reinforcing perceptions of victimization;
•satisfying infantile claims to entitlement, indulgence and compensation;
•augmenting primitive feelings of envy;
•rejecting the sovereignty of the individual, subordinating him to the will of the government.

“The roots of liberalism – and its associated madness – can be clearly identified by understanding how children develop from infancy to adulthood and how distorted development produces the irrational beliefs of the liberal mind,” he says. “When the modern liberal mind whines about imaginary victims, rages against imaginary villains and seeks above all else to run the lives of persons competent to run their own lives, the neurosis of the liberal mind becomes painfully obvious.”

posted December 03, 2014 03:51 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by jwhop:
Senate seat number 9 to Republicans coming on Saturday. Mary Landrieu voted with O'Bomber 97% of the time and she's getting ready to pay the price for selling out her constituents in Louisiana!

[b]Sen. Landrieu: Democrats 'Walked Away' From My Senate Race
Tuesday, 02 Dec 2014
By Jason Devaney

With Louisiana Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu trailing her Republican challenger ahead of a runoff election later this week, she has accused national Democrats of abandoning her.

Republican Rep. Bill Cassidy held a 15-point lead over Landrieu in a recent poll.

"I am extremely disappointed in the Democratic Senatorial [Campaign] Committee. I've said that. You know, they just walked away from this race," Landrieu said in a Washington Post story.

The runoff election, scheduled for Saturday, came about because neither candidate earned a majority of the vote on midterm election day last month.

Republicans picked up eight seats in the Senate to seize control of the chamber for the next Congress. After that, the DSCC stopped its advertisements in support of Landrieu, leaving her severely outmatched in the spending department: the Post writes that she had about $216,000 from groups to work with, compared with the $1.4 million the National Republican Senatorial Committee will have spent on Cassidy by Saturday's election.

Landrieu first took office in 1997 and has since been elected twice more, but her bid for a fourth term appears in jeopardy.

A Landrieu ad released this week said that if Cassidy wins, the GOP "will impeach" President Barack Obama once the new Congress takes office next month.

Narrated by Rep. Cedric Richmond, the ad asks: "Have you heard the crazy stuff Bill Cassidy, Bobby Jindal, and the Republicans are always saying about President Obama?"

"They have shown our president so much disrespect. They said he wasn't a U.S. citizen, they even sued him — and if Cassidy wins, they will impeach him."

On Monday, a black conservative group said it had proof that the father of Landrieu's chief-of-staff urged citizens to vote twice in the general election last month.
http://www.newsmax.com/Politics/Mary-Landrieu-runoff-trailing-challenger/2014/12 /02/id/610716/ [/B]

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