Have you ever voted for or contributed to a state or national Democratic Party candidate?

Is your email In Box overflowing with near-desperate appeals: “Please send money! Our Democratic Party candidates are facing grave problems; we may lose control of the U.S. Senate, face further loss in the House of Representatives, lose more governorships”?

Stand-up comics call it “flop-sweat.”

“Geez,” you may have thought. “With the GOP controlled by Tea Party extremists, I thought we were a shoo-in.”

Oh? What about the inconvenient truth offered by former noted campaign consultant Joseph Napolitan to his constituent candidates: “Do not underestimate the impact of an unpopular national administration.” “Assuming the merits of the candidates are about equal, if you represent the party of an unpopular administration, you probably will lose.”

True? Then where does that leave Democrats as they face next November’s elections?

In April 2013, President Obama’s approval rating had a 52-week high of 53 percent. In June that year came the first of Edward Snowden’s many revelations of the massive spying by the president’s administration on his own and other citizens. In March 2014, the president’s approval rating reached a 52-week low of 39 percent.

So, how many Democrats — having been informed by Mr. Snowden — have, like Oregon Senator Ron Wyden and Colorado’s Mark Udall, publicly and vigorously opposed the president’s behavior? How many have been “chicken”?

Considering the answers to these questions, what will come home to roost in November?

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