Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan, locked in a tough re-election fight in North Carolina, appeared to hedge for a bit when asked by a reporter whether she thinks President Obama is a strong leader.
“You know, President Obama has a lot on his plate and it seems like whether it’s the oil spill that took place earlier, a number of years ago in the Gulf, to this Ebola crisis now to ISIS gaining strength — you look at all the combination of things like that,” she told NBC’s Kasie Hunt.
Do you think he’s acted as a strong leader in those crises? Ms. Hunt asked.
“I think there’s definitely, like with Ebola, we have definitely been late to the table in making decisions about that, being sure that CDC understands and gets messages out to hospitals,” Ms. Hagan said, finally conceding there are “certainly” issues where she thinks Mr. Obama has not shown strong leadership.
Ms. Hagan is one of several Democratic senators up for re-election who called for travel restrictions in the wake of the Ebola crisis. She has held small but consistent leads in recent public polling in her race against Republican Thom Tillis in a contest that the GOP is trying to make all about the president and national politics, and Democrats are trying to turn into somewhat of a referendum on Mr. Tillis’s tenure as speaker of the state House.
Her answer illustrates the delicate balancing act that many Democrats, up for re-election in states Mr. Obama didn’t win in 2012, must walk. They’re trying to appearing sufficiently independent of a president whose approval ratings are hovering in the low- to mid-40s while not criticizing him to an extent that could turn off Democratic loyalists that the party needs to show up to vote in a non-presidential year.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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