Congressional fence-sitters
Members of Congress are familiar with that seat, actually. Especially on a range of social and economic issues.
But RealClearPolitics points to a group of them who aren’t supporting a presidential candidate yet, either. They’re worried about their own electability.
Georgia Rep. Jim Marshall, a Democrat and Vietnam veteran who won his last election by about 1,800 votes, said he admires both Obama and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., but feels no obligation to state a preference.
“If it turns out one of them is an ax murderer or something like that I’ll make a choice,” he joked. Otherwise, “I don’t think I need to get involved.”
That’s extreme indecision. Or…decisive moderation.
For most of these fence-sitters — at least 14 as of Wednesday — it boils down to political necessity: They are vulnerable Democrats in conservative-leaning districts who take pains to avoid aligning closely with the national party.
McCain has his own issues in his party. Many conservatives opposed the four-term senator, who has worked with Democrats and strayed from GOP orthodoxy on some issues, before he sealed the GOP nomination in February. Many still express reservations about him as the party leader.
This is not new to this year or these candidates, actually.
Over the years, moderates and conservatives have avoided associating with nominees going back to George McGovern in 1972 and including John Kerry in 2004. Public endorsements were not an issue in 2004 since Kerry had wrapped up the nomination early.
“They are all scared to death about getting beat by a Republican,” said Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., one of Obama’s most prominent supporters. “I don’t think that if the good Lord himself had been nominated as a Democrat that some of those folks would have endorsed him. They are afraid of looking too much like a Democrat because of the kind of districts they’re from.”
Desperate times call for desperate analogies. However…
Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, a Democratic House leader who helped orchestrate the party’s strategy for winning control of Congress in 2006, argues against reading too much into the holdouts. He said most of them always stay out of national politics and that the party is generally unified around Obama.
“They’re just going to stick to their knitting,” he said. “It’s not that they’re anti-Obama.”
At least he didn’t say ‘guns and religion’.