Obama has lost the owner of the "Obamalac"

Photo courtesy of Capitol Fax

During Obama's successful run for the Presidency in 2008 Rich Miller of the Capitol Fax made several posts about his dad's support for our then US Senator. He supported Obama so much that he placed decals on his car "Obama '08" and then drove it to Iowa. What a difference three years will make. From Miller's Sun-Times column:

The situation may be worse than they realize. My father went door-to-door for Obama in his U.S. Senate race. Obama used to call him “Brother Miller.”

Dad loved him.

When Obama decided to run for president, Dad attached giant, custom-made “Obama ’08” stickers to both sides of his vintage 1963 Cadillac convertible. He christened it the “Obamallac” and drove all over Iowa to advertise his guy before the 2008 caucuses.

I called Dad on Tuesday night and he told me he was watching the Republican presidential debate. I asked him why and he said he’s so bitterly disappointed in Obama that he is looking around for someone else to support.

If Obama has lost the Obamallac owner, he’s in gigantic trouble, and so is the rest of the Democratic Party.

The gist of the whole column was about how this year Democratic support is soft in this state. Of course this is true around the nation. While many have hoped for parallels between 1996 to today there are just no signs that it's happening at all. There doesn't appear to be a backlash against the Republican US House of Representatives.

The difference between 1996 and 2012 is that President Bill Clinton was very willing to co-opt the Republicans agenda for the most part. It remains to be seen if President Obama's current turn to the left will help his chances, but according to Miller's column the polling doesn't suggest as much.

Of course Miller's beat is not the national political scene but Illinois' political scene. If Obama is in trouble around the nation, then that couldn't possible bode well for his home state Democrats!