With friends like these, who needs enemies?

A hat tip to the Weekly Standard here, via Hot Air, for this lovely little tidbit. Barry apparently believed that appearing on Al Sharpton's radio show carried pretty much zero risk of anyone actually hearing what he said, even if Sharpton replayed the clip on his MSNBC TV show (which Sharpton did, and which seven people saw). There are, however, several Democrat Senate incumbents seeking re-election who really wish Barry would keep his mouth shut:



So maybe Mary Landrieu in Lousisiana, Mark Pryor in Arkansas and Mark Begich in Alaska aren't so thrilled to have Barry say they are only pretending to distance themselves from him because their states hate Barry. Try as they might to run away from The One, he won't let them. Bet they were thrilled to hear him deliver this sound bite custom made for Republican attack ads::

“Well, look, here’s the bottom line,” said Obama, “We’ve got a tough map. A lot of the states that are contested this time are states that I didn’t win. And so some of the candidates there, you know, it is difficult for them to have me in the state because the Republicans will use that to try to fan Republican turn-out. The bottom line is, though, these are all folks who vote with me. They have supported my agenda in Congress. They are on the right side of minimum wage. They are on the right side of fair pay. They are on the right side of rebuilding our infrastructure. They’re on the right side of early childhood education.
“So, this isn’t about my feelings being hurt. These are folks who are strong allies and supporters of me. And I tell them, I said, you know what, you do what you need to win. I will be responsible for making sure that our voters turn up.”

As Mary Katharine Ham put it at Hot Air:

Really, though, what is this about? Perhaps on the same day as his lackluster reception in Maryland (Maryland!), he just couldn’t let stand another suggestion that he didn’t hang the moon? There are plenty of ways for the Smartest President Evah to finesse this answer without giving Republicans the exact soundbite they need in a manner so explicit, they could have written it themselves. He can’t be bothered. Remember, this is the stuff he’s supposed to be good at.

I think that "What was he thinking?" is a fair question. He's letting voters in states where Democrats seeking re-election are understandably trying to pretend they don't ever side with him at all -- because they know their constituents oppose his policies -- that those Democrat incumbents do, indeed, side with him all the time. I think it also is interesting that, despite his oft-stated willingness to compromise and work with the other side -- when he isn't demonizing them -- Barry makes clear that his position is always "the right side." Obviously, his idea of compromise is "you agree with me." Interestingly, the constituents of the Barry-avoiding Dems he's talking about obviously don't agree that Barry is on "the right side." That's why those incumbent Dems are pretending they don't agree with the guy ever. Because their constituents don't.

Unfortunately for them, Barry just made that charade harder for the people he's supposed to be helping. Completely predictable, though, once you realize that Barry is touting his own wonderfulness and actually has no interest in helping anyone other than himself.