With less a month until Election Day, Donald Trump’s ego is suffering through a rough week.
In recent days, Texas’ Republican governor kept his distance from a Trump rally in his home state; Michigan’s Republican Senate candidate denounced key elements of the president’s agenda in a new ad; and other GOP Senate candidates distanced themselves from the White House during televised debates. For a president known for his delicate sensibilities and a constant need for attention and affirmation, this has to sting.
But what likely hurts even more are the broader circumstances: As Trump’s approval ratings tank, as his party prepares for significant midterm losses and as his ostensible allies give him the stiff-arm amid early voting windows opening nationwide, Democrats can’t seem to get enough of Barack Obama. Politico reported this week:
Former President Barack Obama is set to reprise his nearly decadelong, post-presidential career as the Democratic Party’s closer-in-chief — not just on the campaign trail, but on the airwaves, too.
Last week, Obama cut ads for 24 Senate and gubernatorial campaigns, his office confirmed first to [Politico’s Playbook newsletter]. Expect them on your screens soon.
In case this isn’t obvious, there aren’t 24 Republican Senate and gubernatorial candidates in competitive races who are urging Trump to cut ads on their behalf.
Obama, on the other hand, is in high demand. On Thursday, for example, MS NOW reported on the former president throwing his support behind Troy Jackson’s Democratic Senate campaign in Maine, which included a video in which Obama touted Jackson’s background and legislative record.
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Hours later, Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff’s campaign in Georgia similarly touted new ads that Obama filmed on the senator’s behalf.
This came on the heels of an announcement in Michigan that the former president will lead a campaign rally later this month in support of Abdul El-Sayed’s Democratic Senate campaign and Jocylyn Benson’s gubernatorial campaign, which followed Obama appearing in a campaign ad in Iowa in support of Democratic state Rep. Josh Turek’s candidacy.
There’s no great mystery here. Unlike Trump, Obama remains a popular national figure: recent polls showing him enjoying greater support than any other living president. What’s more, the latest NBC News poll found a plurality of voters would be more inclined to support a candidate endorsed by Obama, while a majority of voters said a Trump endorsement would make them less likely to back a candidate.
The next time the incumbent president lashes out at his first-term Democratic predecessor, remember Trump is likely jealous that Obama enjoys the kind respect and admiration that the Republican can only pretend to have.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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