What went wrong for Obama, Dems

The election may be seven weeks away, but it's never too early to start analyzing the historic drubbing Democrats are expected to take in the voting booth.

Howard Fineman of Newsweek dances on Barack Obama's political grave in a post-mortem look at how Obama and the Democrats were taken to the woodshed.

From his article:

Obama's approval rating is weak, and many Democrats now accept the conventional wisdom that they may lose the House, even the Senate, in November. Some reasons why were unavoidable. The messianic hope that Obama inspired was destined to dissipate almost as quickly as it arose. There are pendulum swings in politics; Democrats, having taken 55 Republican House seats the last two cycles, were bound to concede some. Most important, however, kitchen-table realities are as grim as, or worse than, when Obama took the oath. "Democrats are overextended in marginal districts, and the economy is still in bad shape," says Democratic pollster Mark Mellman. "Those two factors are the only ones that really matter."

Fine spends the rest of the article looking at things Obama & Co. could have done differently ... if they weren't so arrogant and tone-deaf to the suffering of everyday Americans.

Read the full column at the magazine's website.