Pure Delusion

Josh Kraushaar writes for National Journal about President Obama's negative impact on his party's Senate candidates.

White House officials are preemptively spinning a midterm defeat, and they're using their own fantasies to do it. They're starting to blame candidates for not supporting President Obama enough.

This is pure delusion: Obama is the main reason Republicans are well-positioned to win control of the upper chamber next Tuesday. And Democrats' biggest strategic mistake in this election is that most candidates didn't run away far and fast enough.

Democrats should have recognized that the president was falling out of favor with the public and inoculated themselves a long time ago. Instead, many bought the White House's spin, and are at risk of going down with a sinking ship.

Only those who came from outside Washington could pull off successful distancing. Democratic House members and Senators have voting records showing them voting with the President most of the time. Their records have proven impossible to run away from.