Crunch time: Dems face gloomy midterm forecast

With just five weeks until Election Day, early voting already under way and a midnight deadline for campaigns to file fundraising reports, the midterm forecast looks dismal for Democrats and promising for Republicans. President Obama, his approval ratings in the basement, thinks his party can hold onto the Senate and plans to try sell an anemic recovery by claiming most Americans are better off six years into his tenure. For vulnerable Democrats already heavily burdened with Obama’s domestic policy baggage, that sale will be tough indeed. Republicans, who have seen prospects for retaking the Senate improve in recent polls, have taken holdof the threat posed by ISIS militants, hammering the president’s foreign policy mismanagement and taking Democrats to task for their part in the mess. Meanwhile, Democrats in key Senate contests are scrambling to morph from the liberal anti-war stance that got many elected, to hawks on ISIS. The only bright spot for the blue team at this point: cash. They have lots more of it, with wealthy backers pouring in dark money even as Sen. Majority leader Harry Reid and his party deride Republicans over the support of their benefactors. As the GOP pushes contributors for a late surge to even the score, voters can expect an October barrage of ads. Whether that battleground and grassroots efforts can change what appears to be a gloomy outcome for Democrats, remains to be seen.

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