The big win for Republican Mark Amodei in Nevada’s 2nd CD, along with a surprise defeat for Democrats on the other side of the country, has the Nevada Democratic Party looking for a way to succeed in what looks to be a very, very tough 2012 election.  Their new strategy?  According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal and their inside source, it’s simple: “Don’t get your picture taken with President Obama.”

Democrats came to this conclusion after Amodei hammered his opponent, state treasurer Kate Marshall, with a television spot called “Echo”:

If that’s the problem, then maybe Harry Reid shouldn’t offer any photo ops, either.

That doesn’t mean that Nevada Democrats have entirely given up on 2012, however. The newspaper also reports that the party thinks it can win the Senate election to replace John Ensign by duplicating its effort from Reid’s re-election campaign, and even more importantly, to hold the state for Barack Obama in the presidential election.  They need to get Democrats fired up in the northern part of their state to accomplish both tasks, and Democrats think they have a winning rally cry to fire up their base, too, according to Democratic strategist Billy Vassiliadis:

“Our bad is better than their bad.”

Now that’s inspiring.  “We stink, but they stink worse”?  At least it’s more honest than “Hope and Change!” or “Yes, we can!”