Why are the Democratic candidates getting a free pass?

[Empowerer]

To listen to the punditry, etc., one would think that this were a presidential election year, not the mid-terms, and that Congressional Democrats weren't running for anything. I hear very little about what they are or should be doing to protect their own seats. Virtually every single second of coverage and analysis is focused on the president and what he is supposedly doing wrong.

We are hearing next to nothing about the Democratic candidates - other than those running against Tea Party nuts. If they lose their seats, they will share much of the blame but it seems as if they are trying to preempt taking responsibility by putting all of the responsibility on the president.

What seems to be going unmentioned is that Members and Senators who work on good relationships with their constituents throughout their terms, including strong constituent services, tend to have easier races than those who don't. Usually these kinds of relationships trump or at least help to overcome the kind of national backlash we're seeing today. Democratic candidates in this trouble can't just blame a national mood - it sounds to me as if they haven't been taking care of their business at home.

In my view, much of the reason they're in trouble is because they have spent entirely too much time not only running away from the President, but trying to prove to the world that they are more conservative than the Republicans. They didn't seem to learn an important lesson from 1994 - that if you spent two years tearing down your own president, you weaken him and then when he goes down, he takes you down with him. Of course, he then has two years to get his mojo back and, as Clinton did, can come back strong. On the other hand, the losing member can take solace in the fact that they "sure showed him!"

[T Wolf]

1. It's easier for the media to blast that simple message of "Obama bad" to the mindless cretins

who support the GOP. No need to remember exactly who is running or what they stand for.

It's just stop the black guy -easy to memorize and repeat.

And it taps into the basic (racist) motivation of the reich.

Edited to add - And by ignoring Congress, they do not have to address the GOP obstructionism or press them (yeah, sure) for alternative solutions.

[Empowerer]

2. Bingo!

Your point about not having to address GOP obstructionism is particularly dead on!