Oh-oh! The magic is gone for the onetime rock star campaigner. It's hard to be full of hope and change with worse long term unemployment than the (first) Great Depression, and with "smart diplomacy" getting us into a war in Libya whose relationship to our national interest Obama can't quite put his finer on. The result? Carrie Budoff Brown of Politico reports:

Granted, it was a fundraiser, not a free rally. But the empty seats were hard to miss. 

The top level of the 2,200-seat concert hall at the Adrienne Arsht Center for Performing Arts was entirely empty, as were the seats along the side of the second and third levels. 

The Obama campaign has a big problem that goes beyond his miserable performance in office. There is no way to recapture the magic of his first campaign for the presidency precisely because it was built on a manufactured image of hope entirely lacking in substance. Compared to reality, that image now seems phony.  Like a geriatric rock star, Obama's past haunts his present.

Hauling out the Styrofoam columns won't work this time around. Everyone realizes they cannot bear a heavy load. Just like Obama.