Hopenchange: Too much, too soon

“I’ve always maintained that I thought that they were doing too much, too fast,” said Rep. Mike McMahon (D-N.Y.), an endangered freshman who represents a Staten Island district long occupied by Republicans.

“Without question, the biggest complaint I’m hearing from constituents is that there were too many things being tackled all at once, and they didn’t have time to understand and digest all of them,” he added.

The Big Bang, made famous by Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, is giving way to a wary brand of incrementalism. It’s not the small-bore, Clintonian agenda of V-chips and school uniforms but an admission that expectations are diminished — not dashed — and a determination to attack the same huge problems in smaller, smarter ways…

The downsizing impulse has seized Democrats at all levels — with the possible exception of the president himself — but it’s strongest among those closest to the ground: endangered Democratic incumbents in conservative districts. Ironically, Emanuel himself recruited many of these members when he was head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.