Obama no longer drawing a Jersey crowd
OCTOBER 14, 2014, 10:10 PM LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2014, 11:02 PM
BY CHARLES STILE
RECORD COLUMNIST
THE RECORD
A visit by Barack Obama once had the buzz of Beatlemania.
When he visited New Jersey, crowds were packed with college kids who hoisted cameras and chanted “Yes We Can,” and the stages bulged with Democratic officials eager to bask in his glow.
But as Obama returns to New Jersey today for the first time in 16 months, his popularity is in a tailspin. And instead of headlining a campaign rally in a civic center, he will be escorted into a pricey, closed-door fundraiser in Union County, a visit that is supposed to draw donors and not attention. And the Democrats are more than happy to keep it that way.
U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell is an eight-term Democrat from Paterson running for reelection against Republican Dierdre G. Paul, a Montclair State University professor, and he said his campaign polling detected a noticeable drop in Obama’s numbers. For Pascrell, the Obama effect has forced him to navigate – keep his distance from Obama on some issues but not abandon him altogether, which could potentially alienate hard-core Democrats who remain loyal to Obama.
“You have a choice if you are a Democratic candidate. You can run away from the president, you can embrace everything he does, or you can say it like it is,” Pascrell said last week while campaigning in Fort Lee. “When I agree with him, I agree with him; when I don’t agree with him, I say so.”
The president who could electrify crowds four years ago is now radioactive. With Obama besieged by multiple foreign policy crises and his popularity in free fall, Democratic candidates around the country are taking measures to separate themselves from the party’s standard-bearer.
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