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- iHaveNet.com: Politics
by Kenneth T. Walsh
The president's campaign trail influence is waning
President Obama's influence on the campaign trail seems to be shrinking. He has stumped for Democratic candidates in the four major races over the past few months, only to have his choices lose in Massachusetts, Virginia, New Jersey, and, most recently with Sen. Arlen Specter , in Pennsylvania. In the May special House election in Pennsylvania, Democrat Mark Critz won, but only after he campaigned against Obama's agenda and billed himself as a pro-gun, anti-abortion, anti-Obamacare outsider. It appears that voters have turned off the president's megaphone, or they just aren't paying much attention to it any more.
Appearing in Pittsburgh, President Obama tried to frame the fall campaign by portraying Republicans as naysayers who have opposed many of his key initiatives, including tax cuts for small businesses, tax credits for college tuition, and new spending for clean energy. "We already know where their ideas led us," the president said. "And now we have a choice as a nation. We can return to the failed economic policies of the past, or we can keep building a stronger future."
But Obama seems powerless to alter the fundamental political dynamic heading into the fall's elections: Congressional incumbents, most of them Democrats, are in trouble, and getting rid of them seems to be a primary objective of the voters. "Americans are hitting the delete button," says Ken Duberstein, former
Given a choice among nonincumbents, voters so far have tended to prefer the candidate who is most stridently anti-Washington, such as Rand Paul, the new Republican nominee for the
Which brings us back to Obama. Some of his policies are very unpopular or polarizing, such as his new healthcare law and the vast federal spending and industry bailouts undertaken in response to the most serious economic recession in decades. But
But many are skeptical. "The
The impact might be more immediate than
"Obama needs to decide if he is the leader of the country or the leader of a party," says Dowd. "He needs to go back to being the leader of the country" because that's why Americans voted for him in 2008. To that end, Dowd says, Obama should occasionally fight liberal Democratic leaders in
Of course, the anti-incumbent mood in the electorate could also bite Republican incumbents. Pollsters say there's not much sentiment for the
Available at Amazon.com:
The Disappearing Center: Engaged Citizens, Polarization, and American Democracy
The Virtues of Mendacity: On Lying in Politics
Bush on the Home Front: Domestic Policy Triumphs and Setbacks
The Political Fix: Changing the Game of American Democracy, from the Grassroots to the White House
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2010 Elections: Obama's Campaign Trail Power Failure | Politics
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