POLITICO.COM : "It’s just a toxic environment right now. So the president needs to show he can relate to ordinary people, and he’s fully capable of that. He just needs to show empathy. He can’t have the George H.W. Bush problem, not knowing how much a gallon of milk or a gallon of gas costs. He needs to be making trips like this every week"

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Rep. Gerry Connolly, a Democrat who represents the Northern Virginia suburbs, said the weak Republican field makes him confident about the president’s reelection prospects.

“This field looks like Snow White and the seven dwarfs,” Connolly said. “They’re competitive only because of the economy…I think the Republicans are smoking something exuding any confidence in this field.”

POLITICO.COM
Where Barack Obama’s independent problem began
By JAMES HOHMANN & GLENN THRUSH
October 18, 2011

Where Barack Obama’s independent problem began

Some excerpts :

The Obama campaign says the president’s new tougher pitch for jobs is just starting to resonate with voters, and aides point to an early October Washington Post-ABC poll showing that 44 percent of voters trust the president over Congress when it comes to creating jobs — a seven percent increase since he hit the stump in the last month.

Russ Potts, a former Republican state senator who ran for governor as an independent in 2005, said that Obama is onto something with the push for infrastructure spending that is part of his economic program because road projects appeal to the very independents now sour about Obama.

“The president has not conveyed imagination and thinking out of the box,” Potts said. “He’s got the bully pulpit…The American people are begging to hear that.”

“Sure, he should have done that a long time ago but you can’t worry about the past. The good news for him is that Virginians dislike [House Majorty Leader] Eric Cantor more than they dislike Obama because they see him as obstructionist. Believe me, the American people get it about the whole ‘no’ crowd.”

And despite his low-40s approval rating in the state, Obama does fare comparatively well in recent head-to-head match-ups with Republicans Mitt Romney and Rick Perry. Moreover, Obama 2012 officials say no state is better organized than Virginia, with over 1,500 campaign events held there in recent months and a steady flow of donor cash that guarantees field operations in even the reddest parts of the state.

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