I write about Obama’s latest economic proposals today. The most direct way for him to boost Democrats’ fortunes in the fall is to turn out the base, eroding the Republican enthusiasm advantage. The problem is that the kind of things he can do to motivate his supporters are the kind of things that are driving independents away from him:

Obama’s domestic program has become one enormous wedge issue, the classic definition of which is anything that drives a “wedge” between the bulk of the electorate and a politician’s core supporters. While most people want less of Obama’s program, his base wants more. Obama could ease off his spending to try to take the edge off the brewing backlash, but that would anger his supporters. Instead, he promises his union-member allies yet more infrastructure projects. His new proposals for business-tax breaks are paid for not with spending cuts, but with countervailing business-tax increases, lest the Left throw a fit.

UPDATE: A reader chimes in:

To me, the speech in Milwaukee proves that Obama doesn’t believe he can get the independents back by November, so his only hope is to try to close the intensity gap and get his 2008 supporters to the polls. The class-warfare stuff on the Bush tax cuts is consistent with such an approach as well. At first blush, it seems like a desperate strategy, but tacking to the middle is unlikely to win him many independents at this point, and is likely to further depress liberal turnout. From Axelrod’s standpoint, neither a base nor a middle strategy is likely to save the House; at least this approach lets him do what he’s ideologically inclined to do anyway.