When asked about what he would like to have changed in his first term, Barack Obama usually responds that he has not communicated effectively enough with voters.  That’s why he has David Axelrod on board his re-election campaign, to ensure that his team offers clear and unequivocal communication about Obama’s chances of winning a second term.  I’m not sure Obama wants Axelrod to be this honest, though:

President Obama’s chief political adviser is calling President Barack Obama’s road to re-election a “Titanic struggle.”

And David Axelrod also concedes that the Democratic president doesn’t have the wind at his back.

That’s actually a great metaphor.  In the film, at least, the character of Jack gets aboard the Titanic in a fluke, spends his time engaging in class warfare, and then distracts the lookouts so that the ship runs into an iceberg.  Suddenly, the ocean liner starts to sink, and the management doesn’t have enough lifeboats to save everyone.

Actually, Obama himself tried out a new nautical metaphor, complaining that he’s “all dinged up” after three years in office while “trying to keep the boat afloat”:

While Obama is down in some polls, he cited another reason for the challenging political environment before the Hollywood crowd: “It’s not going to be as sexy. It’s not going to be as new.”

“I’m grayer,” the 50-year-old president said. “I’m all dinged up.”

“And those old posters everybody has got in their closet? They’re all dog-eared and faded.”

Obama also said people are “tired” and “worn out,” and that is likely to manifest itself in the election.

“We’ve been driving through a storm,” Obama said. “We had to try to keep this boat afloat through something that we haven’t seen in our lifetimes. And people are weary and hurt. And so the energy of 2008 is going to have to be generated in a different way.”

I guess the car-in-the-ditch analogy has gotten too “dinged up” to use anymore.  Sounds like Obama really needs a campaign manager in charge of metaphors — and someone needs to explain that Titanic most certainly did not stay afloat.