Democrats’ midterm prospects look bleak

Great news about the economy today — 248,000 jobs were added in September. Will it help President Obama’s party in the midterm elections next month? Nah.

The closing arguments are being made, Obama is trying to tout economic recovery and Republicans don’t really need an argument beyond “need I say more?” Things are so rotten Republicans can safely assume people just want relief from the status quo. For most of this year, the polls challenged that assumption, however, and several of the most endangered Democrats from red states that 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney won handily have held leads or remain tied with GOP candidates running against them. No more. New polls show Democratic Sens. Mark Begich of Alaska, Mark Pryor of Arkansas and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana slipping out of close contention with their challengers. Once written off as the weakest Senate Democrat in 2014, Kay Hagan of North Carolina is doing better than all of them.

The only way Democratic incumbents hang on is if they find a way to turn out their vote. Republicans — hungry for the GOP to control both chambers in Congress — will flock to the polls. But strong majorities of Americans do not feel the economic recovery has improved their lives and many of them earn less than when Obama took office. Voters are scared of how the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) came from nowhere to become such an unprecedented threat, immigration supporters don’t know why Obama waited two years to address a growing border crisis, Ebola has now come to America and almost every agency within the federal government has been touched by scandal at worst and mismanagement at best. ObamaCare and Obama himself are so unpopular it means Democrats have started giving up.

Why will Democrats vote next month?

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