Lastly, for all the problems with the Democratic agenda, at least there is one. What swept the Republicans to victory in 1994 was not (just) running against the administration, but the perception that they had a unifying agenda – a Contract with America – and were ready to govern. The Republicans have every reason to want to nationalize this election (after all, the generic Republican is a national construct). But other than being against everything the president is for, they have yet to put forth anything resembling a governing plan.

Organizers of last week’s Lincoln Memorial rally have gone out of their way to say it wasn’t about politics, but about faith and spirituality. In addition to making some people nervous about the idea of one group judging the faith and spirituality of others (as in Glenn Beck saying he doesn’t recognize the president’s brand of Christianity, and one of Beck’s rally partners, evangelist leader Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, telling NPR he doesn’t recognize Beck’s), the focus on faith over politics highlights the void as to the latter.