The Hill News

Republicans compared on Monday the incensed flight attendant who recently bailed on a Jet Blue flight to Democrats who are growing increasingly reluctant to appear with President Obama.

The Republican National Committee (RNC) released a Web video to needle Democratic incumbents who have been reluctant to appear with Obama.

The video depicts cartoons of prominent Democrats bailing out on an emergency slide off Air Force One, much as Jet Blue flight attendant Steven Slater did last week on a flight, in an incident that garnered national headlines.

"With unemployment hovering around double digits and a majority of Americans unhappy with the direction of the country, it is not a surprise endangered Democrats do not want President Obama to come to their districts and remind voters of their failed economic policies," RNC Chairman Michael Steele said about the video. "So long as the president continues to ask Democrats to ignore the concerns o! f voters and help ram through his liberal agenda, he can expect the campaign trail to be quite a lonely place.”

The internal Democratic debate over whether or not to appear with Obama has become an emerging theme during the 2010 August recess, a period during which a number of embattled incumbents have returned to their districts to campaign for reelection.

On one hand, Democrats like Sen. Russ Feingold (Wis.) and party Chairman Tim Kaine have said, respectively, that they're proud to stand with Obama and that it would be a "mistake" to avoid him.

On the other, incumbents like Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and Rep. Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.) have been more guarded about wanting to appear associated with Obama, as well as Democratic leaders like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.).

The video also comes as the president hits the road over the next few days in a fundraising and campaign tour across the country.