Never Run From Your Leader and Your Beliefs

Democrats never learn. Republicans did not run away from President Bush in 2006, and while they took losses in that election, they lost 30 seats, which seems mild next to 2010 or 1994. There's a lesson to be learned.

We spent this entire cycle pushing the President away, and watching our dispirited base mope through the election. As he sat on the sidelines, we performed worse in just about every race than the polls said we would. The connection is clear.

No matter how far you run away from your own party in an election, the other side is supposed to make you wear it. Republicans are good at this. Whether it was Lundergan Grimes, Nunn, Pryor, Begich, or whoever else you want to talk about, bashing the President didn't help our candidates in any race. You lose any positives you should get from them, and you don't gain anything.

We already should have known this though. In 2000, Al Gore worked hard to separate himself from Bill Clinton. He lost that election. In 2002, Democrats tried to be war-hawks to win an election. They lost. Get the pattern?