Saddle up the pony

It seems a number of Senate Democratic candidates thought they could ride the Clinton pony to Congress, but alas they ended up at the glue factory. The biggest losers of this election cycle may very well be the Clintons. Democratic candidates were banking on the Clintons' star appeal to put them over the top, as such Bill and Hillary were very much in demand throughout the country, stumping for gubernatorial and congressional candidates from coast to coast, only to watch most of them go down on Tuesday night. They went 17 for 48 (0,354), according to Politico, with most of those victories coming in Blue states, where the candidates were relatively safe. The folks at Fox news must have really been chortling over this one.

Meanwhile, Barack Obama sat in the White House, conspicuous in his absence on the campaign trail. But, it didn't need to be that way. The Obama team was ready and willing to help out embattled candidates but the call never came until too late. By that point, the narrative had already been set by the Republicans, who went out of their way to paint him as a "failed president."

Amazing when you think about it. Here is a guy who has demonstrated he can get out the vote, yet Red State Republicans who desperately needed the minority vote in their states, particularly in the South, saw him as a liability and tried "to walk a tightrope between keeping some distance from the president and trying to turn out his base." Look at Mary Landrieu's last ditch appeal to Louisiana black voters. I suppose she thought she could pull a "Thad Cochran" and get the black votes she needed to avoid a runoff, which now she is most likely to lose, as it is hard to believe that Rob Maness's supporters will vote for her over Cassidy. Make that 53-47 Republicans in the Senate.

The Demcorats thought they had all the support they needed in the Clintons, as Hillary had already been anointed the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee for 2016 by the press, and we all know what a great campaigner Bill is. It must have been pretty humbling for Bill to see so many of his chosen candidates fall, particularly Allison, who proudly proclaimed herself a "Clinton Democrat."

Alas, this election was about Barack Obama, as the Republicans made it so abundantly clear, and Democrats played right into the GOP's hands by keeping him in the stable, when they should have been riding him from the start.

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