McCaskill Explains Decision to Skip Convention

Senator Claire McCaskill — one of the most vulnerable Democrats targeted by the Republican National Committee for defeat in 2012 — is defending her decision not to attend the Democratic National Convention this summer. She plans to spend the week campaigning in Missouri, instead:

McCaskill’s Republican opponents jumped on the opportunity to say she and other Democrats in conservative districts are avoiding the convention to distance themselves from President Obama’s re-election campaign. But McCaskill says the same people criticizing her decision not to go to the convention would criticize her if she went:

McCaskill has previously skipped the convention in year’s she’s on the ballot.