Great piece in The New York Times today by Matt Bai on President Obama’s re-election strategy.  Bai nails the point that Americans have become increasingly impatient with their politicians in recent years — with everything — and that the President’s essential re-election theme of don’t change horse in midstream is a loser. Sounds like a loser to me, too.  Objectively.

If President Obama doesn’t find a way to begin gathering momentum on something, I think he’s going to get trounced, no matter what the polls say today. This is a state by state contest, and when you begin to look at it that way, he’s already in trouble. Several states he won in 2008 are very much in play.

The President’s fundamental problem is that he is stretched too thin.  From the beginning, his administration showed no discipline in focusing on achievable tasks.  So what we see are dozens of half-started economic, environmental, industrial, healthcare, and foreign policy projects.  They are like half-put-together toys on the Oval Office floor.

The two biggest accomplishments of his administration are Obamacare and bin Laden’s elimination.  The first, though, is hated and coming apart at the seams and the second is now already factored into the polls — his approval rating is at 48% today and dropping.  The bin Laden bounce is indeed gone.  What sustainable initiative — one with which he can build momentum — does he have?

This race is the Republicans’ to lose.