White House to red-state Democrats: Don’t blame Precious if you lose

Allah:

I had a nice laugh imagining the reaction among Landrieu, Pryor, and Hagan staffers watching Josh Earnest deliver these remarks today after last night’s rhetorical groin-punch. The GOP’s spent six months warning red-staters that a vote for Democrat X is a vote for Obama. That’s basically true, The One helpfully conceded yesterday.

Now here’s Earnest telling Democrat X that if that albatross around his or her neck feels heavy, hey — maybe they should have run a better campaign, bro.

“The success of many of these Democratic candidates will depend on their own success in motivating voters that strongly supported the president in 2012,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Tuesday.

“Ultimately, those Democratic candidates will have to develop their own strategies in their states for figuring out how exactly to do that,” he continued. “And there are people running in red states that have a strong track record. … So it should be their decision. It’s ultimately their campaign; it’s their name that’s on the ballot.”…

Earnest also said there was a “variety of ways” Obama could be beneficial to those candidates, outside of appearing alongside them at rallies.

He did concede that O will get “at least his fair share of the blame” if Democrats lose the Senate, although that’s more a bow to political reality than a concession of how large Obama’s unpopularity looms in these races. Is it true, by the way, that red-state Dems vote with O reliably and have been strong supporters of his agenda, as he said on Al Sharpton’s show last night? Christopher Ingraham of WaPo ran the numbers and … yeah, you betcha it’s true:

You don’t need more than the final roll call on ObamaCare to know which group, the Democratic Party or their own constituents, takes precedence for Democrats from conservative states, but in case you had any doubts, let that chart ease them. Anyway: What’s up with O running around lately telling everyone that people like Mark Pryor are his loyal soldiers in the Senate when Republicans are running around telling everyone that, er, people like Mark Pryor are his loyal soldiers in the Senate? Last night wasn’t the first time Obama made that point this month. At the beginning of October, he told a crowd that his policies are on the ballot this November, which felt like the kiss of death to centrist Dems who’ve been arguing precisely the opposite. What gives? Doesn’t he know his job approval is south of 42 percent?

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