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Ellison's Must Read of the Day

Ellison must read

My must read of the day is "Obama on Dems Running Away from Him: ‘These Are All Folks Who Vote With Me," in the Weekly Standard:

President Obama discussed the election and how "all" the Democrats running away from him "have supported my agenda" in an interview with Al Sharpton earlier today:

"Well, look, here's the bottom line," said Obama, "We've got a tough map. A lot of the states that are contested this time are states that I didn't win. And so some of the candidates there, you know, it is difficult for them to have me in the state because the Republicans will use that to try to fan Republican turn-out. The bottom line is, though, these are all folks who vote with me. They have supported my agenda in Congress. They are on the right side of minimum wage. They are on the right side of fair pay. They are on the right side of rebuilding our infrastructure. They're on the right side of early childhood education.

"So, this isn't about my feelings being hurt. These are folks who are strong allies and supporters of me. And I tell them, I said, you know what, you do what you need to win. I will be responsible for making sure that our voters turn up."

Every Democrat in a tossup Senate race is pulling their hair out right about now.

President Obama is right that they do have a tough map. Of the thirty-six seats that are up this cycle, Democrats are defending 21 of them and six are in states Obama lost to Romney in 2012. We also know that the voter demographics of midterms tend to favor Republicans. What compounds those problems and adds to the list of obstacles is President Obama’s approval.

Obama’s average approval rating for the past four months is 41.5 percent. It’s worse in many of those key states Democrats are defending.

According to a recent New York Times/CBS News/YouGov poll, in every single battleground state—from Arkansas to New Hampshire to Iowa to Colorado—over fifty percent disapprove of the president.

The best thing the president could do for Democrats is to stop talking. Election day is two weeks away, and there is probably nothing Democrats vying for a Senate seat want more than fifteen days of silence.

Obama is toxic for Democrats in this election, and everyone seems to recognize that except for the White House. Either they don’t realize the extent of the public’s distaste for Obama (which I find hard to believe) or in their arrogance they have decided they simply don’t care.