“In today’s short-attention-span politics, every president needs a motto. And the Obama presidency has been in search of a clear theme from Day One,” said Stephen Farnsworth, author of the book, “Spinner in Chief: How Presidents Sell Their Policies and Themselves.”

Mr. Obama came into office promising to put the nation on a “new foundation,” a phrase he had come up with himself in crafting his inaugural address in 2009. He used it 103 times in various speeches and statements in 2009-’10, according to speech texts compiled by the American Presidency Project at University of California, Santa Barbara.

Then he stopped.