Certain newspapers of record are featuring the theme of Democratic panic. This story from the Los Angeles Times seems to be the most recent, at least as this national trend applies to Ohio. Highlights:
Two years after scoring a decisive win in the seesawing political environment for which Ohio is famous, President Obama returned Wednesday to an altered landscape, where Democratic fortunes are seemingly tipping back the other way.[…]
First-term House Democrats are fighting for their political lives, the once-popular Democratic governor is in trouble and Obama’s popularity within the state has tumbled. Republican challengers, many of them former members of Congress, are poised to take advantage.[…]
[Lee] Fisher’s efforts have been hamstrung in part by the Democratic congressional agenda. Congress, he said in an interview, should have spent more time on job creation.
“It would have been my preference to keep a focus on jobs during the last two years,” he said.
It’s a concern shared by other vulnerable Democrats such as Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy, who squeaked by her opponent, Republican Steve Stivers, by just over 2,000 votes in central Ohio, and Rep. Steve Driehaus, who defeated seven-term GOP Rep. Steve Chabot in conservative Cincinnati. Both Kilroy and Driehaus supported Obama on healthcare, the climate bill and the stimulus, and both face their same opponents — Stivers and Chabot — in rematches.