Democrats' Campaign Plans Don't Include Joe Biden

Joe Biden, on the campaign trail - New Hampshire, 2020. (Photo by: John Poltrack/Dreamstime.com )

By Monday, 17 October 2022 11:27 AM EDT ET Current | Bio | Archive

Perhaps you’ve noticed that lots of Democrats in make-or-break congressional midterm races are distancing themselves from appearing with President Biden or featuring him or his policies in their campaign ads.

Nevertheless, Joe is on the Nov. 8 ballots with them, whether they invite him or not.

There’s little wonder why many view their party leader and track record as drags on future political career prospects.

With Biden’s approval rating at 42% in an August NBC News poll of registered voters - 55% disapproving of his performance – 8.2% inflation running near record highs, and costs of gas, housing, food and other goods escalating with no end in sight, who can blame them?

According to The Wall Street Journal, in an editorial of Oct. 13, 2022, the consumer-price index rose 0.4% in September alone, which excludes food and energy that hit a 40-year high, rising 6.6% over the past 12 months.

Service prices (less energy services) are up 6.7% in a year.

Prices also rose sharply last month for car rentals (2.5%), health insurance (2.1%), vehicle repair and maintenance (1.9%), and airline fares (0.8%).

Then there are a bunch of other pesky matters, like for example, rampant crime in predominately Democrat cities and a southern border invasion that is flooding all states with deadly fentanyl, now the number one cause of mortality for Americans aged 18 to 45.

Incumbent Democrat Sen. Mark Kelly who is running a neck-to-neck Arizona race against Donald Trump-endorsed Republican challenger Blake Masters has admittedly called the situation at the southern border "a mess."

Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, the longest-serving woman in House history, produced a campaign ad saying that she "doesn’t work for Joe Biden, she works for you" mere weeks after greeting the president at the Cleveland airport in July.

Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, ran an ad saying he opposed "trillions of dollars of President Biden’s agenda because I knew it would make inflation worse."

Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, running for The Buckeye State's open Senate seat who recently appeared with the president at a Columbus groundbreaking of an Intel computer chip factory has suggested that both parties need "new leadership," and that "it’s time for a generational move" in 2024.

Referring to Biden, Ryan spokesperson Izzi Levy told The New York Times, "We haven’t been interested in him or any other out-of-state surrogates.

"I don’t see that changing anytime soon."

When Biden visited Milwaukee on Labor Day, Democratic Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes who is in a tight Wisconsin Senate race with Sen. Ron Johnson was a conspicuous no-show.

After all, wasn’t Donald Trump supposed to be the politically toxic one?

Officeholders and top candidates often distance themselves from their party’s unpopular presidents and policies.

Overcoming this resistance is a tough order when it occurs at a time  like now  when according to The Hill, a poll of 1,000 registered voters conducted by NBC News from Aug. 12 to Aug. 16 found that 74% of people believe the country is moving in the wrong direction, while only 21% believe the opposite.

Optimism that conditions will improve is thin, with 34% of respondents predicting that the country’s situation will worsen, and 36% believing things will improve.

Contrast this with Republican candidates vying for support from former President Trump, and the apparent congressional primary race boosts the anointed ones received.

Of U.S. House incumbent competitors, Trump-backed candidates had 130 wins and only one loss, Rep. Madison Cawthorn, R-N.C.

In open House races, Trump endorsements scored 16 wins and 2 losses.

On the U.S. Senate side, Trump-backed incumbents and open races both scored perfect 10-0 wins.

In Arizona, Trump-backed Kari Lake won the Republican primary for governor over Karrin Taylor Robson, who had the backing of former Vice President Mike Pence and the state’s outgoing Governor Doug Ducey. Lake is also strongly favored to win in November over Katie Hobbs, the Democratic nominee.

Other key Trump-supported candidate races to watch are Arizona’s Blake Masters who is running against Democratic senator, former astronaut Mark Kelly; Pennsylvania’s Dr. Mehmet Oz who won the open Pennsylvania Senate primary and is in a tight race against John Fetterman; and Georgia’s Herschel Walker who is in a contentious dead heat matchup with incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock.

As Michael Cornfield, a political scientist and associate professor at George Washington University points out, "Democrats can’t possibly think that Republicans won’t put them in ads with Biden even if he physically doesn’t appear with him. They’re going to be linked to Biden, so they might as well make the most of it."

In the meantime, with less than a month before voters go to the polls and little good economic news on the horizon, don’t expect many desperate Democratic Party contenders to clamor for Joe’s company on campaign trails.

Quite apparently, their emperor’s naked failures have no political coattails.

Larry Bell is an endowed professor of space architecture at the University of Houston where he founded the Sasakawa International Center for Space Architecture and the graduate space architecture program. His latest of 12 books is "Architectures Beyond Boxes and Boundaries: My Life By Design" (2022). Read Larry Bell's Reports — More Here.

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LarryBell
With less than a month before voters go to the polls and little good economic news on the horizon, don’t expect many desperate Democratic Party contenders to clamor for Joe’s company on campaign trails. Quite apparently, their emperor’s naked failures have no political coat tails.
ohio, wisconsin
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2022-27-17
Monday, 17 October 2022 11:27 AM
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