Gary Peters

I finally found one!  ONE Democrat - Gary Peters, running for US Senate in Michigan - actually embraced President Obama and didn't shy away from the things the Democrats have accomplished! ONE!  Out of hundreds. Incredible. And guess what? Peters has a 15-point lead over his opponent.

Why, oh why, are the Democrats being such pussies and won't embrace Obama? Are they afraid of the big, bad meanie Republicans? It would appear so. 

Only One Senate Dem Candidate Had the Guts to Embrace Obama and He's About to Win Big

The best – and sadly the only - example of a senate candidate with the courage to actually stand with the president rather than pretend he doesn’t exist is Michigan’s Senate challenger Gary Peters. Far from apologizing for Obama, Peters asked the president to attend a rally and give a speech standing alongside him on the very last week before the polls open.

In many ways, Michigan is the ideal testing ground for whether or not a candidate could reject the Obama Myth and still be competitive. A purple state with a strong liberal base as well as many conservatives, it would be easy to go the Clay Aiken route and ignore the liberals and desperately court moderate conservatives. Instead, Peters went with the president.

As the crowd cheered, Peters — a Wayne State graduate — welcomed Obama’s appearance, and stressed the bailout of the auto industry.

“Thank God, our president stood up for American workers,” said Peters, who also pointed out that his election could determine control of the Senate. [source]

Obama, perhaps happy to flex his rhetorical powers in front of a crowd rather than shilling at a fundraiser for a one governor or another, gave a roaring speech. He spoke so passionately that half way through his voice nearly went out – and he kept going.

“They don’t have an agenda for the middle class!” Obama shouted as a crowd of several thousand cheered. “They don’t have an agenda for Detroit! They don’t have an agenda for Michigan!”

The crowd, many of them who’s jobs are still around thanks to Obama’s actions to save the auto industry after the financial collapse, didn’t seem to find Obama’s presence off-putting. They were energized. The kind of energy that Maher noted Aiken lacked. These were potential voters who were fired up to vote.

The result of this mad experiment? Peters holds a massive 15-lead on his Republican opponent. When the dust has settled after Election Day, he may in fact be the only new Democratic senator going to Washington.

There are a number of reasons Republicans are expected to make huge gains in both chambers of Congress – gerrymandering, voter ID laws, piles of dark money being spent on Republican candidates – but the one area that Democrats could make a difference and failed to is in voter apathy. It’s no fun to vote for candidates who seem afraid to speak too loudly about their liberalism lest the big, bad Republicans come and be mean to them. It’s hard enough as it is to get Democrats to the polls, giving them something to vote for could make all the difference.

In comparison, it’s hard to imagine Clay Aiken made any liberals sit up when he bashed the president. That spinelessness doesn’t amount to much. And that’s a missed opportunity that the nation can’t afford to make.

Original.