U.S. President Barack Obama makes a statement for the press after a meeting at Andrews Air Force Base October 14, 2014 in Maryland. Obama's popularity is at an all-time low and it's really hurting the Democrats. Photo: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images WASHINGTON — Relegated to the Gulag of America’s mid-term elections, U.S. President Barack Obama last week sought refuge in actress Gwyneth Paltrow’s spacious Los Angeles home.
“I am one of your biggest fans, if not the biggest,” Paltrow gushed before a backyard audience of about 200 guests paying $1,000 US for drinks and $15,000 for dinner.
California is not a front line state in this mid-term go-round. In fact, it’s but a fringe player in an election that has all the hallmarks of defeat for the Democrats, promising to strip them of the Senate and plunge the last two years of Obama’s presidency into a deep funk.
Yet lonely Obama is nowhere to be seen, totally sidelined, relegated to fundraisers.
President Barack Obama walks from Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Republicans need to net six seats to win the senate. Polls indicate that nine seats are either neck-and-neck or leaning Republican. It’s too close to call.
But one thing is certain. The main reason behind the unpopularity of the Democrats is Obama. Paltrow may be his biggest fan, but too many Americans are not. His popularity is at an all-time low.
So much so that in key races, no Democrat wants Obama anywhere near his or her state. Democrats are distancing themselves so much from the President it’s hard to believe they are in the same party.
Alison Lundergan Grimes, the Democratic candidate in Kentucky, rarely misses a chance to deny Obama. She won’t even admit ever to have voted for him. Polls show a close race between her and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, although the Republican now has a three-point lead.
“The American people are not happy with the president and that is creating a difficult situation for Democrats,” Allan Lichtman, Distinguished Professor of History at American University, said.
With less than three weeks remaining before the Nov. 4 mid-terms and the Republicans in no danger of losing control of the House of Representatives, Obama could serve out his final two years struggling with a congress eager to undo all of his accomplishments.
“The magical Obama that we saw in 2007, 2008 has not been present throughout most of this presidency,” Lichtman said. “Like so many other presidents, Obama has become the victim of the Washington bubble, you know, surrounded by pollsters, advisers and admen and hucksters who always bring you down a notch or two to the common denominator.”
President Barack Obama speaks during a meeting with more than 20 foreign defense ministers. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Lurking in the background is a limping U.S. economy. Middle class earnings remain stagnant. Immigration is still a mess. The country is back at war in Iraq and now in Syria. Fears about Ebola fill the airwaves. And then there’s Russia and Ukraine.
In the end, however, this election is chaotic. There’s no one thing that really irks Americans. They’ve just kind of had it with Obama, which is why they are leaving it all on his doorstep even though most of these problems are not of his doing. If anything has paid off, it’s the six years of unrelenting attack by Republicans on what they claim is Obama’s lack of leadership.
Peter Hanson, a political scientist at the University of Denver, said Democrats face the normal mid-term blues. Disenchanted with their own President, they just aren’t that interested in voting.
Added to that is the fact that many of the Senate seats at play are in typically Republican states. The Obama wave that got Democrats elected in 2008 in states such as Louisiana, Arkansas and Alaska is spent.
First lady Michelle Obama talks with school children as they eat lunch in the East Room of the White House. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
Another problem, Hanson said, is that some Democrats are fighting the last war. In Colorado, for instance, Marc Udall has fallen behind Republican challenger Cory Gardner, who supported an anti-abortion amendment when he was a Colorado lawmaker. The amendment was roundly defeated.
When Gardner first announced his candidacy, he disavowed his anti-abortion vote and successfully, it seems, inoculated himself from Udall’s portrayal of Gardner as an extremist. Gardner countered that defeating Udall would send Obama a message that he’s doing a bad job.
In yet another election cycle of record-high spending, the Democrats are seeking salvation by spending $40 million to register their traditional base of blacks, Latinos and low-income voters.
Some Democrats claim that losing the Senate would be good for their party as they move into the 2016 presidential election. This thinking is based on the hope that the Republicans would promote an extremist agenda unpopular with the nation.
There could, however, be compromises all around. “It’s certainly possible that we could see some legislative accomplishment in the next couple of years,” Hanson said.
One thing is certain, however, the loss of the senate would impede Obama’s appointment of liberal judges to the federal courts.
“One of the most enduring legacies the president leaves is the judiciary,” Lichtman said. “If the Democrats lose the senate, it’s going to be very difficult for Obama to get any more judicial appointments through. So leave everything else aside, I think it would be a disaster for the Democrats to lose the Senate.”
wmarsden@postmedia.com
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