Barack Obama Losing His Political Swag? Election Results Draw Critics

Some are arguing that President Barack Obama is losing his political capital, as the country rejected many of his Democratic colleagues in this week's political races. Sen. Arlen Specter is the fourth Democrat in the last few months to lose a high-profile race, despite being heavily endorsed by President Obama. This outcome concerns many Democrats as the party prepares for November elections.
Specter's primary loss to fellow Democrat Joe Sestak is leading some to question Obama's persuasiveness even within his own party. Obama's inability to help his fellow Democrats get elected may undermine his legislative agenda, as other party members may decide to distance themselves from the president. It could also embolden Republicans, who feel that this is going to be their year.

"We're licking our chops at running against President Obama," said Rand Paul, the Tea Party-supported Republican winner in Kentucky's primary over Jim Bunning.

Some also believe that Obama may be motivating Tea Party candidates to vote. A recent AP-GFK poll shows that Americans are split over Obama's job performance. The number of people who strongly disapprove (33 percent) outweighs the number of those who strongly approve (22 percent).

Making things more difficult for Obama is the runoff that was forced on Blanche Lincoln, the Democratic Senatorial candidate out of Arkansas. Obama has supported Lincoln, but is not as closely aligned with her as Arlen Specter. In prior months, Obama was not able to save the seats of former New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine or help Creigh Deeds become governor in Virginia. He was also unable to help Martha Coakley win the seat of the late Edward Kennedy in Massachusetts.

The Corzine and Deeds races were relatively complex in the sense that Corzine had a serious popularity problem, and Deeds was an underdog. The loss in Massachusetts, however, was both embarrassing and inexcusable, given that Coakley was considered a shoe-in to take over for Kennedy after he died. Equally problematic for Obama is the fact that he worked very hard on behalf of Arlen Specter, even e-mailing his supporters on Specter's behalf and telling an audience that he "loves him."

Much of the push-back that the Democrats faced during the primaries was because many Americans are sick of Washington. They are tired of seeing business as usual, politicians getting nothing done or those only doing the things that benefit themselves. Many blacks were utterly confused by Obama's decision to nominate Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court, a woman who has almost never hired black or brown people and seems to only be qualified by the fact that she has ties to Harvard and the University of Chicago. Showing additional White House loyalty to Harvard University is hardly the anti-establishment president that many Americans supported in 2008. In these primaries, Americans were voting against such an establishment.

Along with managing anti-establishment sentiment comes the challenge of mobilizing the Democratic base instead of boring them. Obama is an intelligent and a calculated politician, thinking through every move, as he should. What happens, however, is that moves that lie too close to the political center do nothing to inspire the energy and loyalty from the left that got Obama elected. The pollsters in the White House trying to figure out Obama's next move may be well-advised to ensure that the next set of actions on behalf of the president are enough to get liberals as enthusiastic as the Tea Party. If they can't match energy with energy, they are going to get slaughtered in November.

Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and the author of the new book 'Black American Money.' To have Dr. Boyce's commentary delivered to your e-mail, please click here.