Democrats Running Away from Obama Won’t Work

First Read: “Our latest NBC/WSJ/Annenberg poll is the latest survey to show Republicans with an advantage (49%-44% among likely voters) heading into the Nov. 4 midterms. And once again, the GOP holds the enthusiasm edge: 42% of all Republican voters say they’re more enthusiastic than usual, versus just 34% for Democrats. And if Republicans run the table in the all the close races – similar to how Democrats ran the table in all of the toss-up contests in 2006 – there is going to be a tremendous amount of second-guessing about the Democratic candidates keeping their distance from Obama.”

“We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: A party running away from a president never works. One, because the party already owns the president. And two, because that running away alienates many of the voters who elected — and then re-elected — him. In other words, if the Democratic Party wants to energize its voters, is treating the head of the party like a pariah the best way to do that? Bottom line: It’s just demoralizing, and it creates a negative feedback loop.”