The case of nerves running through Democrats is a bit like the hot "flush" that comes from a dose of niacin.

Let's be honest, everyone's a little worried.

The Obama orations that were so uplifting a few months ago now seem like someone else delivered them - last year.

And Republicans have done a superb job of redefining Obama as a kind of Michael Jackson superstar without the plastic surgery.

Will Joe Biden as Veep make a difference? Maybe.

Biden is an unknown to much of Obama's youthful supporters, and it's hard to cast him as an agent of change.

He seems more like a knee-jerk reaction to the Russia-Georgia conflict, which is what makes a New York Times's Frank Rich column so compelling.

The promise of change is the message that tied Hillary Clinton to an anchor she couldn't cut loose. And it's the message Obama needs to get back to pronto.

While Obama was on vacation, McCain was hammering away at him, portraying himself as the noble servant who always puts America first, even if it costs him the election.

But the Beijing Olympics exposed another story for many Americans - one that surfaced alongside the Michael Phelps coverage.

China is booming.

For every engineer the US graduates, China is graduating 20. India is not far behind.

Reporters were inadvertently confirming what your traveling friends have been telling you for several years: China is the future and the US is the past.

Obama needs to help Americans see the difference and decide.

He needs to break through McCain's war hero, bumper-sticker patriotism and show Americans the termites in the attic.

Do we need a man who is still fighting the Cold War? Do we want more of the same economic and social policies that are creating such extreme inequities in health and education, shifting more wealth to fewer people?

Most Americans sense the country is in trouble.

Obama was at his highest when he told Americans the truth, as if it didn't matter if it cost him the election.