Despite their bitter fall-out during the bitter primary campaign with his wife Hillary Clinton, Mr Obama is this weekend looking at how Mr Clinton put his presidency back on track after the Democrats suffered disastrous mid-term congressional results in 1994, two years after he came to power. (Emphasis added)

Mr Obama will try to recapture the spark of his campaign with his first State of the Union address on Wednesday night when he will hammer home plans for a second jobs stimulus package and the drastic overhaul of Wall Street which he announced last week.

Panic stations were sounded for his party, which controls the White House and both chambers of Congress, after a groundswell of public discontent and economic anxiety swept a little-known Republican candidate to a Senate victory last week in the traditional Democratic stronghold of Massachusetts in a seat long held by Ted Kennedy, the "liberal lion".

Unless the Democrats led by Mr Obama can win back the independent voters who have deserted in droves in just a year, the party stand to suffer debilitating losses in the November mid-term elections. (Emphasis added)

Often criticised for appearing cool, celebral and detached, the President came out swinging following the stunning defeat. On Thursday, he took on the financial sector with a vigour that had many supporters asking why it took him so long.

[SNIP]

[] John Harris, a veteran Washington pundit who wrote The Survivor: Bill Clinton in the White House and now edits the Politico website, had some simple advice for winning back the doubters.

"Clinton learned a lesson along the way that surely applies equally to Obama: the only thing other politicians really respect is popularity and power," he observed. "When Clinton's approval ratings were high, his own party got in line. When they were low, Democrats were happy to pile on." (Emphasis added)

And just when it seemed the week could get no worse for the Democrats, the Supreme Court overturned a long-standing ban on spending by corporations, trade unions and pressure groups in candidate elections, ruling that it breached the constitutional right of free speech. On both sides of the politics divide, there was little dispute that the Republicans, already on a roll, would be the major beneficiary of the landmark decision. (Emphasis added)

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Full article.

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Well, no surprise at all. Pres.Bill Clinton is who Pres.Obama had to approach early on for some mentorship; frankly Pres.Obama failed to do that and he is paying for it.

Pres.Bill Clinton can give pointers, but as in any mentoring, the mentee needs to stand on his/her own in the end.