A tweet that suggests Democrats “Take a lesson” from Gary Peters who “campaigned with Obama in Michigan and won” has gone viral. The “unsubtle implication: Had Democrats embraced the president more openly, they would have had better success on Tuesday.” The Washington Post,
There are several layers of subtext to complaints that campaigns locked out the president, which we’re not going to get into here. Data suggests that Obama was an overall drag, and it is very much the case that campaigns are risk-averse and often timid, making anything as possibly risky as an appearance with the president the sort of thing that they are likely to avoid. Relying on the Gary Peters example — or any one example — as proof that the Senate Democrats messed up ignores a whole lot of other things. The people that Democratic candidates really needed to make an appearance during 2014 were Democratic voters. They were invited to attend Election Day, but, instead, often decided to stay home.
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