Early Wednesday morning, liberal CNN political commentator Cornell Belcher groaned during CNN’s midterms elections coverage that the Democratic Party’s top campaigner in President Barack Obama was unable to defend attacks against his record and help Democrats on the campaign trailer because he “was basically locked away in the White House.”
During a panel discussion about how the election results panned out and how it all went wrong for the Democrats, Belcher followed fellow CNN commentator and former Obama adviser Stephanie Cutter and complained: "One of the things that's been difficult I know for the White House is quite frankly that they – you all did a very good job of nationalizing the election, which is what we've would have done in the same position. The problem for the White House has been this – arguably the best campaigner our party has was basically locked away in the White House and, in fact, when they were leading attacks against the President, the President was never able to really come out of the White House and defend himself[.]"
Belcher said further how supposedly strong economic numbers that the President should have been more outspoken about:
[W]hen you look at the economic numbers and you look at the stock market and look at corporations and you look at manufacturing jobs picking up again in a way they hadn't since the '90s, there was a lot that the President could have, in fact, defend if they had allowed him to.
The relevant portion of the transcript from CNN’s Election Night in America 2014 is transcribed below.
CNN’s Election Night in America 2014
November 5, 2014
1:09 a.m. EasternCORNELL BELCHER: Can I make one final point about the President cause I know there's been a lot of back and forth about the President. One of the things that's been difficult I know for the White House is quite frankly that they – you all did a very good job of nationalizing the election, which is what we've would have done in the same position. The problem for the White House has been this – arguably the best campaigner our party has was basically locked away in the White House and, in fact, when they were leading attacks against the President, the President was never able to really come out of the White House and defend himself and some of us now will make the case that, you know what, when you look at the economic numbers, Americans are still anxious, but when you look at the economic numbers and you look at the stock market and look at corporations and you look at manufacturing jobs picking up again in a way they hadn't since the '90s, there was a lot that the president could have, in fact, defend if they had, in fact, allowed him to.
