Their options, though, are limited: Many of Obama’s biggest achievements — health care reform, financial reform, the stimulus package — are deeply divisive. The ones that are the most widely popular — the killing of Osama bin Laden and the ending of the Iraq War — are foreign policy notches that don’t have much to do with the economy, which polls consistently show is the top concern among voters right now. And the economy is still the source of too much anxiety to go the Morning-in-America route, said Democratic strategist James Carville.

“I think every instinct is to run on a version of that. Unfortunately, they can’t. I don’t think the public is with them on that,” Carville said. “They’re caught between that which they would love to do and that which they can’t do.”…

“You can count on two things from the White House right now: a defensive message and an angry tone,” Buck said. “Whether it’s gas prices, Keystone, attacks on the Supreme Court or messages transmitted to Vladimir, the White House has taken its megaphone and turned it into a ‘Kick Me’ sign.”

“The one image, the one idea, which motivates, they haven’t found it yet,” Goldman said.