North Carolina’s Senate race between incumbent Kay Hagan and Republican challenger Thom Tillis is shaping up to cost over $100 million, the most ever. While still lagging a few points behind, Tillis is crowing that he’s gotten Hagan to sign on to his stupid plan to institute a travel ban to contain Ebola. For her part, Hagan’s entire campaign—at least judging from the unsolicited dunning letters clogging my inbox—is that Thom Tillis is secretly the fifth Koch brother.

“It would be a Congressional horror story if the Kochs succeed this year,” reads a Halloween-themed pro-Hagan email signed by New York Sen. Kristen Gillibrand. The most serious character in the race appears to be the Libertarian Sean Haugh, a 50-something, beer-swilling pizza deliveryman who says he’s “pro-choice” on everything and “anti-war” on everything (including the war on ISIS, drugs, and poverty). He’s consistently been polling at more than the spread between Hagan and Tillis.

As a group, the Democrats are running not just for office but away from Obama, who is rapidly devolving into the worst-ever two-term president since…George W. Bush. Because they are trying to distance themselves from the president, whose recent and rare appearance at a campaign event sparked an exodus of the audience, Democrats can’t really offer much in the way of an agenda. Obamacare is still unpopular with voters, our foreign policy is in tatters, and the Ebola scare underscores a sense of utter incompetency that is tough to shake. And their Get Out of Jail Free card—“Blame Bush!”—has finally expired.