Pat Dollard

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Politico:

As Obama’s most recent forays into battleground states indicate, there are growing signs that many Democratic politicians don’t want to get too close to him.

In trips to Michigan, North Carolina and Pennsylvania — all states that he carried in 2008 — members of Congress were notably missing from the president’s side. Though none came out and said they were deliberately avoiding him, they didn’t have to: Dodging a presidential candidate who’s riding low in the polls is a time-honored political practice.

The past three elections — the Sept. 13 House special elections in New York and Nevada and the Oct. 4 West Virginia gubernatorial special election — haven’t done much to inspire confidence about Obama’s ability to help the entire ticket: The president was unquestionably an anchor on the Democratic nominees in each race.

For Obama, who has led a charmed political life since bursting onto the national stage in 2004 — he was in high demand on the campaign trail even before he won his Senate seat that year — it’s a harbinger of a humbling election year to come.

In North Carolina, only Sen. Kay Hagan, who isn’t up for reelection until 2014, and veteran Rep. Mel Watt, who represents a majority black district, appeared with the president. The state’s six other Democratic House members took a pass, offering a variety of excuses.

“[Obama] may end up being Walter Mondale of 1984,” said Raleigh-based Democratic strategist Brad Crone, recalling that the only elected official who risked being seen with the party’s nominee that year was the longtime agriculture commissioner.

When Obama visited Pittsburgh, Pa., two weeks ago, the story was much the same — no members of Congress to be found. Though two of southwestern Pennsylvania’s three Democratic congressmen greeted the president on the airport tarmac, neither of them attended any of the public events Obama held, choosing instead to return to Washington.

“Southwest Pennsylvania has become over time a difficult place for Democrats because of the perception they are left of center,” said T.J. Rooney, a former Pennsylvania Democratic Party chairman and state legislator.

When Obama recently visited Detroit — a city he won in 2008 with 74 percent of the vote —not a single member of the state’s congressional delegation showed up. The absences in part reflected ongoing unease over the president’s push for expanded free trade in a state with a strong organized labor presence.

When Obama carried his jobs pitch to St. Louis earlier this month, Senator Claire McCaskill remained in Washington, explaining on Twitter that she would’ve been criticized for “hobnobbing with big donors” if she flew back to her home state to appear with the president. The National Republican Senatorial Committee, which is eager to tie vulnerable incumbents to the president, pounced — the NRSC released a video of McCaskill walking into an evening fundraiser in D.C. that very night, in an attempt to prove the first-term senator was, in fact, dodging an appearance with Obama.