We’ve seen Democrats in individual races avoid mentioning their party affiliation in order to hide their connection to Nancy Pelosi — for instance, in Indiana’s 2nd CD with Joe Donnelly, or Bobby Bright in Alabama.  The New York Times reports that these are no isolated incidents.  Playing Name That Party used to be a pastime just  for the media, but now Democrats in the Empire State have decided to play along, too, and around the country:

One New York Democrat proclaims that he proudly opposed the federal government’s health care overhaul plan. Another one pledges, in the finest Tea Party spirit, to oppose any future financial bailouts. Still another has rolled out three Republicans in three separate commercials, all vouching for his credentials.

But there is one word you will not hear mentioned in any of these campaign advertisements: Democrat.

With the Democratic Party bracing for a dismal showing in the elections next month, many candidates are doing everything possible to convince voters that they are not tied at the hip to President Obama or Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker. A vulnerable Democratic incumbent in North Dakota, Representative Earl Pomeroy, praises former President George W. Bush in one of his commercials. But even Democrats in and near New York State are running away from their party.

The Times’ article mainly focuses on New York Democrats and their evasive maneuvers to keep voters from guessing their party affiliation.  This is in New York, a state liberal enough to have elected Chuck Schumer to the Senate and later to send carpetbagging First Lady Hillary Clinton to join him.  In North Dakota, one would expect a Democrat to keep his party affiliation quiet, as Republicans vastly outnumber Democrats … but New York?

This shows the brand damage done to the Democrats by the Left wing that has controlled it for the last two decades.  Even those moderates that they managed to elect in 2006 and 2008 wound up getting steamrolled by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, making them window dressing for the radical agenda enabled by Barack Obama’s election.  Now they face the loss of not just the Blue Dog seats but perhaps dozens of more traditional constituencies as well after a historic spending binge and expansion of the regulatory state.

Remember the old TV commercials when advertisers compared their products to “Brand X”?  Democrats now want to claim that label for themselves.

Update: Democrats made a big hullabaloo over their new logo.  Maybe they should have come up with something like this, with apologies to His Purpleness: