I would say that first and foremost, Obama needs to run the early part of this campaign by shadow boxing — he needs to run against himself and his own image that has emerged in the first several years of his presidency that the Republicans have successfully painted in the media. He has to overcome their depiction of him as a big government liberal, weak leader and out-of-touch president — all elements they have driven to reduce his approval ratings to 45 percent in the March 27 weekly Gallup poll.

This means he has to make a major move towards fiscal responsibility and a balanced budget as President Clinton did. The deficits are simply too huge not to turn into a major issue against him if left unchecked. And the argument we needed to spend, spend, spend because of the economic crisis won’t hold up for another two years.