You can expect to see some variant of this in ads over the next month.
The first bit is from 2010: it shows then-Representative Bruce Braley pretty much backing the President to the hilt – and, to be fair: in 2010 that wasn’t such a bad strategy in Iowa. Back then people liked Barack Obama – well, more accurately they liked who they thought was Barack Obama. It’s all different four years later, but This Thing Of Ours is notoriously indifferent to the suffering that can ensue when a statement that one makes comes back and bites one on the rear.
The second bit is from yesterday, and it’s going to be replayed forever. Here’s the transcript:
Now, I’m not on the ballot this fall. Michelle’s pretty happy about that. But make no mistake: these policies are on the ballot. Every single one of them.
Just after that, every Democrat in America running in a tough race started to swear. Because the reason why they’re in tough races is because people don’t really like Obama’s policies right now. Especially in the states and districts that are hosting the tough races. The plan Democrats had was to not talk about it, not openly support the President, and to generally distance themselves from both Obama’s administration and his policies; apparently, however, nobody bothered to tell Barack Obama that, because he just stepped all over that narrative*. Whether this was done out of malice, or just stupidity, is beyond the scope of this post: suffice it to say that Bruce Braley (and the rest of his compatriots) are not going to be able to spend October running away from Barack Obama, either.
Yeah, I know: such a shame.
Moe Lane (crosspost)
PS: The Washington Free Beacon hammers this point home:
*Even the reliably Democratic-supporting Chris Cillizza can see that.