Democrat candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes, who is running in Kentucky against Mitch McConnell, gifted the blogosphere with an obvious bit of sidestepping when she absolutely refused to answer whether or not she voted for Obama in 2008 and 2012.
It was pretty awesome actually. You can see video of it here. She tried to avoid the question at first by saying she had endorsed Hillary Clinton in the primary. Then she tried just talking over the question when it was asked again. Then she mentioned the “sanctity of the ballot box” and how Obama wasn’t running against McConnell. Wow.
Let me give some advice. If you don’t want something to be an issue, then don’t make an issue out of it. Here’s a list of things she could have said instead that would have been infinitely more effective. I hope her campaign aids are taking notes, I am going to be dropping some pearls here:
- Yes, I did vote for Obama. I’m a Democrat.
- I actually wrote in “Mickey Mouse.”
- What do you guys think about that guy dying of Ebola in Texas?
- Have you seen that YouTube video of the cat jumping from the roof, set to AWOL Nation’s “Sail”? So awesome.
You’re welcome.
This story just proves yet again that the connection to Obama has become a toxic asset for Democrats looking to gain more power in the midterm elections. I find it humorous that they need Obama’s prestige and fundraising capabilities to fund their campaigns, but they nearly all feel that an overly close alignment with Obama will hurt them in the actual elections.
Whatever they may believe, they don’t seem to understand that admitting their connection and moving on is way better than embarrassing themselves publicly and running the risk of alienating their voters, some of whom still (somehow) don’t know just how bad Obama has been.