IT HAS not been Barack Obama's best week. Polls show him trailing in key states, fundraising is behind target, prominent Democrats are going off-message and supporters of Hillary Clinton are failing to come to his aid by reaching into their pockets.
Adding to their woes, the Democratics are still suffering from the selection of Sarah Palin as John McCain's running mate. "Palin power" continues to electrify all-important independent voters, energising the Republican grassroots and threatening t
o make Obama's choice of Joe Biden seem uninspiring.
In the face of all this, Democratic strategists believe Obama is struggling to find a voice to respond to Republican attacks. To have any chance of clawing back the November 4 election they say he must come out fighting hard – and fast.
There are signs that ordinary Democrats are running out of patience with their candidate's inability to answer Republican attacks. At an informal gathering of Democrat activists and supporters in Brooklyn Heights there was a palpable air of frustration at how the campaign was going.
"It infuriates me. Why can't Obama just spell out who he is?" said Mary Shepherd, a 37-year-old environmental activist from Washington DC. "He is a great guy and a great candidate but he needs to punch that message through. Most people still don't know enough about him."
"We sat through this with Kerry in 2004," said lawyer Ted Leonard. "Where he was too reasonable and measured to get his message over."
"My vote is for Obama," said accountant Jim Abrahams, "but he's completely screwing this up. It's basic politics: don't let the other guy define you."
McCain drew an avalanche of criticism last week from Democrats, independent groups and even some Republicans for stretching the truth in attacking Obama's record and positions.
Obama has also been accused of distortions, but McCain has found himself under fire for a pair of headline-grabbing attacks. First the McCain campaign twisted Obama's words to suggest that he had compared Sarah Palin, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, to a pig after Obama said, in questioning McCain's claim to be the change agent in the race, "You can put lipstick on a pig; it's still a pig." (McCain once used the same expression to describe Hillary Clinton's health plan.)
Then he falsely claimed that Obama supported "comprehensive sex ed" for pre-school children (he supported teaching them to be alert for inappropriate advances from adults).
Nevertheless, for all the criticism, the offensive seems to be having an impact.
The latest round of polls make sobering reading for the Democrats. According to a poll of polls by RealClearPolitics McCain leads Obama 47.4% to 45.1%, buoyed by decisive advantages among suburban and working-class whites.
"Obama needs to demonstrate that he is strong enough to stand up for himself against McCain's attacks if he wants to get hired to stand up for the rest of us against America's enemies," said political commentator John Neffinger.
Some beleaguered Democrat voters said they were happy to see their candidate refuse to "play dirty". "I really don't want to vote for someone I can't respect," said Jon Gould, a 19-year-old from New Hampshire. "I'm not going to vote if he stoops to that level."
Insiders fear that Palin could tap the blue collar votes Obama desperately needs, potentially handing Republicans the advantage in key states like Ohio.
Financially too, team Obama are lagging behind with some insiders stating the party has just $13m in the bank compared to an estimated Republican war chest of $100m.
Traditionally presidential candidates have relied on two main sources of money: public financing, along with additional money their parties raise. In choosing to accept the public money, the McCain campaign now gets $84m from the United States Treasury, though the cash infusion comes with restrictions.
Earlier in his campaign, buoyed by months of record-breaking fund-raising, Obama took the bold decision to turn down public financing, believing he could raise more by going it alone. In doing so, he handed the McCain campaign an $84m advantage, putting pressure on his own team to raise far more than ever before.
Obama's campaign manager David Plouffe said he was unconcerned: "We're confident that we will meet our financial goals, but it's hard work. We have a long way to go in the next six weeks."
The financial constraints facing the Democrats also threaten to impact on Obama's electoral strategy.
Earlier in his campaign, Obama announced that he would campaign in all 50 states, spending money in regions that typically voted Republican rather than concentrating his resources on battleground states. Now the Democratic presidential hopeful has been forced to scale back his operation in key states, including Georgia where Obama has spent over $2m on television adverts since January. The move has been widely seen as a change in strategy, and comes after statewide polls show McCain with a 13% point lead in the state which has not been won by a Democrat since Bill Clinton in 1992.
While the Republicans seem to have cornered the market in plain speaking, the Democrats are struggling to find the right tone to strike back. Democrats are saying that Obama's tendency to take the moral high ground makes him sound priggish and allows Republican jibes to do cumulative damage.
Signalling that they are changing tack, on Friday Obama's campaign manager promised "speed and ferocity" in responses to Republican attacks. In an email to the media, Plouffe said McCain has shown he "is willing to go into the gutter".
Plouffe added that Biden will play a key role in the Democrats' fight-back, responding to Republican attacks and keeping "the debate focused on delivering for ordinary Americans." It was revealed last week that former president Bill Clinton will put his differences with Obama aside and play a prominent role in Obama's campaign from now until election day.
