Will we yet see a nationalized election?

Dionne does some gentle nudging:

Obama’s ability to govern in a second term ... depends not simply on his own triumph but also on the decisive defeat of those who have been obstructing him....

If Obama wants to do more than survive, he thus has to fight a bigger and broader campaign that targets not only Romney but also a GOP congressional apparatus that has moved the party far to the right.

I confess I'm as perplexed as Dionne; or, to put it more positively, perhaps I'm simply more confident in Obama's reelection than a presidential campaign is permitted to be. Dionne's puzzlement is shaped in an exhortation--only a thematically nationalized, presidential-congressional campaign can potentially compel a productive second term--which I thought I heard the president embrace months ago. Since then, however, the president's and congressional Democrats' campaigns have returned to their respective corners, the two seemingly not really at odds, but alarmingly indifferent to each other.

As for my perplexity-contributing confidence, it could be that Team Obama felt it needed to dramatically, absolutely unbeatably run up the score against Romney before attempting an alignment with profoundly misguided "all politics is local" Democratic pols. Never has such a perniciously untrue political axiom so grabbed a party by its short ones. Republicans, it scarcely requires adding, shrewdly clipped themselves free of it in '94. The Dems too habitually sing the same old tune. I can just hear the protests against message coordination: But the new community bike path is a really hot issue; not Medicare!

It could also be that Obama has already begged congressional Dems to coordinate and cooperate, and he's been rebuffed. I don't know. Nonetheless Dionne's point remains a valid one: Absent the "decisive defeat of those who have been obstructing him," Obama is probably in for at least another head-banging two years. Because immediate prospects for GOP sanity don't look promising.

Comments

[DerFarm]

Ya gotta remember, PM, that 6 months ago the Echo Chamber was proclaiming loudly that anyone could beat Obama.

Lots of D's bought that line, and maybe, 6 months ago it wasn't so far fetched. However, time marches on and the KlownKarKavalcade wrecked itself leaving baby Mittens as the only adult in the house.

All those listening to the Echo Chamber couldn't believe the tide had turned, because the Echo Chamber is constitutionally incapable of seeing news that doesn't ehance and enlarge their pen.... their side of the argument. I think it's in the 15th amendment.

Besides, in a local election, you run with what you know. I have difficulty second guessing sitting congress people who survived 2010.

[dr.e]

In Massachusetts Elizabeth Warren is tying Scott Brown to the GOP in ads saying that reelecting Brown will jeopardize Democratic control of the Senate, ensuring more gridlock.

[Chris Andersen]

The reason Congressional Dems are still reluctant to embrace Obama is because they bought into the narrative that he was politically toxic.

Dems are, if nothing else, remarkably slow to recognize when the tide is turning in their favor. I remember in 2006 how reluctant nearly all of them were to run against the war in Iraq, despite all the polling that showed it was immensely unpopular. It wasn't until Lieberman lost his renomination bid that the rest of the party woke up and accepted that it was a winning issue.

For many Dem leaders, embracing Obama still seems like a risky proposition. And Obama isn't the kind to force them to do something they don't want to do, so he respects their desire to keep him at arms length.

Which is unfortunate, because I think a big part of the recent swing in the polls is a return to the party of dissatisfied Dems who, upon watching both Obama and Romney since the conventions, have realized that their problems with Obama are trivial compared to just how bad the Republicans are.

A lot of dissatisfied independents are coming to the same realization.

If the Dems were, as a party, to really wake up to what is going on, they could very likely sweep the GOP out of power and have an even more solid blue coalition than they won in 2008. But I just don't think they have it in them to be that cognizant of their advantage.

[Peter G]

It could be? I disagree. It had to absolutely be. How much angst bled from the left when Obama reportedly spoke of improved opportunities for bipartisanship in his second term. Was there any other argument he could have made given the likelihood of the make up of both the Senate and the House that couldn't have been turned adroitly against him? If divided government produces only gridlock would it not make sense to elect Romney to go along with a Republican House and an Republican Senate? Who thinks that couldn't have been used to appeal to voters sick of gridlock? No sir. He took exactly the right course with those conjectures even though I doubt Obama believed a word of it. Down ticket victories that seemed impossible only a short while ago have now become distinctly realistic opportunities. And it is time to go for the Republican jugulars, right down the line.

[Robert Lipscomb]

Why do you think Rahm Emanuele left the Obama campaign to work for the super-pacs? The Wall Street guys can read betting odds as well as anyone. So, as Tony Soprano would say, it's time to lay-off our bets on Mitt.

All those CEO jackasses who had a fun three years pissing on Obama's leg have had their moments of clarity. This is why AUGUST contribution out-paced Mitt's.

So, the liberal super-pacs will now have a few hundered million dollars to promote the Obama plan as the Democratic plan - everywhere. All they have to do is cut and paste video from the Democratic convention and add some blurbs. Hell, let those two "white men", Clinton and Biden, be the spokesmen.

This is the means for telling Democratic congressmen and senators what they are running on - and not asking them.

[japa21]

I have always agreed with you regarding Obama's likely reelection. I have, however, always been far more optimistic about both retaking the House and increasing the Senate margin. Recent polls tend to ebar that out. Bachmann is now behind her Dem challenger, Cantor's opponent is within striking distance, Baldwin is leading in WI, Warren in MA (pickup), and Donnelly has taqken a small lead in IN (pickup).
And the trend keeps heading in that direction.