By this time tomorrow we will no longer have to contend with any more polls – actually, that's not true, as there should already be exit poll information ready to be deciphered and scrutinized.
But with undoubtedly fewer Democrats in the House and Senate, there will be new criticism added to the past several weeks, if not months, of Obama bashing that has been offered by some of our nation's finest newspaper columnists and commentators.
But how do the Democrats try to influence Barack Obama?
In an article in today's Wall Street Journal written by Peter Wallsten and Jonathan Weisman, the paper reports that "high-level Democrats" are calling on Obama to fire some of his top advisers if today's predicted bloodbath comes to fruition.
The paper says that after some high level strategy meetings led by senior adviser David Axelrod went poorly, some Democrats started holding their own, outside the White House.
Among the complaints: Mr. Obama conveyed an incoherent message that didn't express what Democrats would do over the next two years if they retain power; he focused more on his own image than helping Democratic candidates; and the White House picked the wrong battle when it attacked Republicans for using "outside" money to pay for campaigns, an issue disconnected from voters' real-world anxieties.
The latest strategy session took place Monday afternoon.
The money thing could work, but there's never been a larger frame around it to connect it to people's lives," said Dee Dee Myers, a consultant who worked for the Clinton White House when Republicans swept the 1994 elections. She said she participated in an Oct. 8 meeting with Mr. Axelrod and about 15 Democratic strategists at the White House.
This article appears in Oct 28 – Nov 3, 2010.