President Barack Obama was headlining a rally in Philadelphia on Sunday, hoping to re-ignite the type of Democratic enthusiasm that carried him to victory two years ago but is lacking just weeks before crucial congressional elections.
Vice President Joe Biden will join Obama in the Germantown community, where the hip-hop band the Roots will warm up the crowd.
It's the second of four large rallies designed to recapture some of the big-stage excitement that Obama created in 2008 with stirring speeches to thousands of young and first-time voters. The president spoke to more than 17,000 people last week in Madison, Wisconsin, where many more thousands watched on screens in an overflow area.
Democrats are desperate to close the "enthusiasm gap' that may lead to huge Republican victories on November 2 and result in a more hostile Congress that could cripple Obama's efforts to implement his agenda in the last two years of his term.
Obama is telling liberal-leaning voters that there's no excuse for them to stay home on Election Day and hand over control of one or both houses of Congress to the Republicans.
But the president sometimes sounds wistful when noting the differences between this year and 2008.
"Sometimes I feel as if we had such a high on election night, and then there was the inauguration and Bono was singing and Beyonce," Obama said at a fundraiser in Chicago last week. "That was the start, not the finish, of the journey. And it made each of you a shareholder in the mission of rebuilding our country and reclaiming our future."
First lady Michelle Obama recently told Democratic supporters that the big-stadium events of 2008 were "very exciting, and people should know that those rallies invigorate Barack as well."
"It's time for us to re-engage that energy," said the first lady, who plans to campaign with her husband later this month.
Democratic strategists say their party must persuade thousands of discouraged voters to turn out on November 2 to avert a Republican wave that could put Republicans in control of the House of Representatives, and possibly the Senate.
Republicans need to pick up 40 seats to win power in the House and would need to gain 10 seats in the Senate to take control from the Democrats.
Governing parties typically lose seats in US midterm elections, which take place in the middle of a president's four-year term. But polls indicate that Democratic losses are likely to be particularly severe.
The polls show that conservative voters are much more motivated than liberals. That enthusiasm was evident this weekend in California where as many as 11,000 of the Republican faithful paid $495 to attend the Bakersfield Business Conference which was revived after a five-year hiatus.
Sarah Palin got the loudest reception among an array of Republican stars who assailed Obama's agenda. The former Alaska governor was introduced Saturday as "the next president of the United States" at the all-day celebration of all things Republican that featured appearances by former vice president Dick Cheney, ex-House speaker Newt Gingrich and strategist-turned-pundit Karl Rove.
There are ample reasons for Republican optimism. Poll after poll shows deep voter discontent and even anger at Obama's and congressional Democrats' leadership. Obama and his fellow Democrats are being blamed for the slow economic recovery and continuing high unemployment.
On Friday, the Bureau of Labour Statistics in the last major economic news before the November elections delivered another painful blow to Democrats: The US lost 95,000 jobs in September and unemployment remained stubbornly stuck at 9.6 percent.
In another complication for Democrats, the government is expected to announce this week that more than 58 million Social Security recipients will go through another year without a cost-of-living increase in their monthly benefits.
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