Free Republic

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A year ago, Barack Obama and Joe Biden were in the home stretch of a pulsating White House race, belting out speeches to pumped up crowds and days away from crushing Republican John McCain. The Democratic duo, now president and vice president, are back on the stump again, but the euphoric crowds have thinned and the electrifying crusade for change seems somewhat sullied by the inevitable compromises of governing. Taking time out from multiple crises, Obama has reeled off a string of appearances, polishing his own political skills in some of the few races scheduled a year...

Reporting from Kennett Square, Pa. - As he is quick to point out, President Obama is presiding over two wars, a sour economy and an epic fight to rework the nation's healthcare system. Now tack on a trio of state and local political races. With an off-year election fast approaching, Obama is stepping up his commitment to Democratic candidates in hopes that an infusion of campaign charisma might pump up turnout. What the party is finding, though, is that the electricity of 2008 is tough to recapture.

(CNN) -- Nearly a year after the presidential election, the excitement of Barack Obama's campaign has faded into the reality of an Obama White House. As observers try to determine what time it is in American politics, they arrive at opposite conclusions. To some, said Tulane University political scientist Thomas Langston, Obama is like Jimmy Carter, and the nation will soon hammer the nails into the coffin of a dying Democratic coalition just as voters, tired of the Carter "malaise" era, handed the White House to Republicans in 1980. To others, Obama has come to usher in a new understanding...