Paul Krugman

nails it in his column about the rise and fall of the Audacity of Hype.

Despite having tons of money at his disposal and a (until recently) fawning media, Obama simply can't close the deal.

It's perhaps because for all of his vacuous rhetoric about offering a "transformative" type of politics, voters don't care about that. Being "transformative" doesn't pay the bills, doesn't guarnantee health care.