"I'm not Barack Obama," says Alison Lundergan Grimes, clutching a shotgun. "I disagree with him on guns, coal and the epa [Environmental Protection Agency]," the advertisement continues. As a Democrat running for the Senate in Kentucky, a conservative, coal-mining state that Mr Obama lost by 23 points in 2012, Ms Grimes must work hard to distance herself from the president. Bizarrely, she refuses to say whether she has ever voted for him, citing her constitutional right to privacy. In her race against Mitch McConnell (pictured, with bloodhounds), who will lead the Senate if the Republicans capture it on November 4th, Ms Grimes faces a difficult balancing act. She must convince voters that she is not a bit like the president they dislike, and persuade them to send her to Washington to join his allies there. When Mr Obama said that Democratic candidates "are all folks who vote with me [and] have supported my agenda in Congress", it did not help Ms Grimes's cause.
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