I heard yesterday (Rush?) that BHO was shocked by the 2010 elections. That he lives in a bubble of staff and advisors who tell him how great he is (he knows that anyway but likes to hear it) and doesn’t really get what is going on out in the real world.
I hope that is true for the general election as well: let him, in his own mind, believe that the public still loves him, that he still has the mojo he had in 2008 and will coast to victory. He is so narcissistic, it is possible he believes this.