Vulnerable Dems Already Proving Reid Wrong (Video)

In response to Harry Reid: ‘Vulnerable Democrats’ Want to Campaign with Obama (Video):

CNN has been trying very admirably to get “vulnerable Democrats” on the record to say whether or not they want the president campaigning with them.

Yesterday’s State of the Union speech was a target rich environment for reporters playing that particular “gotcha game”, but contrary to what Senator Reid said yesterday, their targets seemed less than enthused about campaigning with the president.

CNN’s Chief National Correspondent John King joined “New Day” Wednesday to discuss the fallout from many Democrats after President Barack Obama’s State of the Union, saying it was telling how quickly they ran to criticize the president’s proposals.

“What was telling after is how quickly vulnerable Senate Democrats were rushing to criticize the president,” King said. “You had Mark Begich of Alaska. You had Mark Udall of Colorado. You had a senator not on the ballot but a race in his state, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, saying the president was overstepping on executive action.”

CNN’s Dana Bash cornered Colorado Senator Mark Udall to ask him if he would be campaigning with Barack Obama.

After several long non-answers, the frustrated Bash said, “wow. One more chance, you’re not going to say yes or no, are you?”

Udall answered, “we’ll see what the schedule allows. I’m running for re-election, not the president of Colorado.”

The vulnerable Democrat Senator from Alaska flatly stated that he had “no interest” in campaigning with Obama.

Senator Mark Begich (D., Alaska) joined CNN after Obama’s speech and was asked if he would like the president to come campaign for him in Alaska.

“First I’ll tell you when I ran and won was the same year he ran for his first election for the presidency, he lost Alaska by 22 points and I still won my election,” Begich said. “If he wants to come up, I’m not really interested in campaigning.”

He went on to list everything that he would like to tell the president he’s doing wrong on energy policy.

“What I’d like him to do is see why his policies are wrong on ANWR for example,” he said. “He opposes oil and gas development. I’d like to show him why it’s the right move to move that forward, to create jobs in oil and gas. He talked about energy a little bit tonight. We have it right there, a storehouse of energy. I’d like to be able to show him some of the issues we’ve battled with the federal government on and try to get his policies changed that directly affect us.”

This on the night of the president’s big SOTU speech during an election year.

Moderate Democrats’ SOTU Reaction: Run!

More video reactions to Obama’s SOTU speech, here.

COMMENTS