Tying Democratic opponents to President Obama is emerging as a key component of the GOP strategy. A composite image shows Charles Melancon, Dave Obey, Barack Obama, Russ Feingold and Michael Bennet. | AP photo composite by POLITICO GOP to tie Dem candidates to Obama

HONOLULU – As buoyant Republicans devise their game plan for the 2010 campaign, party officials are counting on a boost from an unlikely source – President Obama.

A tactic that would have seemed far-fetched a year ago, when the new president was sworn in with a 67 percent job approval rating, is now emerging as a key component of the GOP strategy: Tie Democratic opponents to Obama and make them answer for some of the unpopular policies associated with the chief executive.


GOP strategists gathered here for the Republican National Committee’s winter meeting believe that now that he's fallen below 50 percent in the venerable Gallup poll, Obama will be an asset to GOP candidates, particularly in conservative or swing states.

The challenge will be to link Democrats with the administration on such issues as spending, bailouts, healthcare and cap-and-trade while not personally attacking Obama, who remains personally well-liked even as his standing erodes. So, at least in purple states or districts, don’t expect to see an ad where the faces of Democratic candidates are morphed into that of the president—a time-honored approach from past campaigns.

But Republicans are unmistakably enthusiastic – and downright giddy in some cases – about the prospect of Democrats stumping with the president in their states, a vivid reminder about how starkly different the political landscape seems now than when Obama took office.

It’s in conservative states, of course, where they’re especially pining for a presidential visit.

“We encourage him to come,” said Louisiana GOP Chairman Roger Villere. “We encourage him to come early and often!”

National Democrats believe scandal-tarred Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) is vulnerable, but Villere already has his message down when it comes to taking on Rep. Charles Melancon, the Democrat who is challenging the incumbent senator.

“He votes 83 percent of the time with [Obama],” the Republican chair said of Melancon, adding with a chuckle: “I believe in the Reagan rule – he’s with him.” (The former president famously deemed anybody who agreed with him 80 percent of the time a friend).

In Tennessee, where there are two House seats being vacated by long-serving Democrats, Republicans are already preparing for opponents who are expected to downplay their party label and ties to the administration.

“The Democrats can’t run away from the position of their party, they can’t run away from their president,” said Tennessee GOP Chairman Chris Devaney.

With a smile, Devaney said: “I’d welcome President Obama anytime.”

What’s especially striking, though, is that it’s not just in Southern states, the region where the president fared poorest in his 2008 election, where Republicans believe the president offers strategic opportunity.

Dick Wadhams, Republican chairman in Colorado and a veteran political strategist, said he’s already preparing to make a show out of Obama’s visit next month to a state he carried by nine percentage points.

The trip, in which Obama will raise money for vulnerable Sen. Michael Bennet (D), will come almost a year to the day after the president signed the stimulus bill in Denver.

“We are going to make that an issue, welcome back, Mr. President,” Wadhams said, with evident relish about the timing of the visit. “A year later, that bill resulted in 10 percent unemployment, hundreds of thousands of more people out of work.”

Even the notion that Obama could be a drag on Democrats in Colorado illustrates just how quickly his political standing has deteriorated. It was there where Democrats enjoyed resurgence in recent years, resulting in scores of stories about the Rocky Mountain West turning, if not blue, at least purple. But now, with the appointed Bennet facing the threat of a primary and a tough GOP challenge, an incumbent governor whose numbers were so poor he couldn’t even run for re-election and at least two Democratic-held House seats potentially imperiled, those analyses look premature.

Recent polling in Colorado finds Obama slipping under 50 percent -- just as he is nationwide.

The president’s numbers are the same in Wisconsin, another state he easily won in 2008.

Republicans in the Badger State think two long-time Democrats could pay a price for backing much of Obama’s agenda.

“Democrats in Wisconsin like [Rep.] Dave Obey and [Sen.] Russ Feingold will be especially vulnerable because these two men have voluntarily marched off the cliff with Obama by not only supporting the president's failed policies but fighting to pass them as well,” said state GOP Chairman Reince Priebus.

Still, Republicans recognize there is little appetite among the voters to personally attack Obama. Strategists point to the model used in Virginia, New Jersey and Massachusetts – all states Obama won – where GOP candidates for governor and Senate were respectful of the president and kept their critique to policy.

Senior Republicans are urging their candidates to stick to what could be called the Barbour Doctrine.

As often stated by the Mississippi governor and former RNC chairman, one of the party’s most respected figures, Republicans must treat the president respectfully and recognize how likable he is – while making the case against his policies.

“We have to tie it back to the specific issues,” Wadhams said of the Obama strategy.

“This is all about policies and what he’s doing -- not the president himself,” said GOP strategist Rich Beeson, a former RNC political director.

Others in the party see vulnerabilities in Obama, but believe the best way to exploit them is to package them with a broader offensive on all of Democratic-controlled Washington, including other foils in the line of attack.

In Iowa, whose caucuses launched Obama’s presidential hopes, his approval rating has also fallen below 50 percent and Republicans are already testing out what will surely be a familiar mantra by November.

“Rep. [Leonard] Boswell is very closely tied to the Pelosi-Obama agenda and that won’t be a positive for him this fall,” said Iowa Republican Chairman Matt Strawn, referring to the Democratic incumbent the party is targeting.

Linking Boswell to both the president and the even more unpopular House Speaker offers more opportunity, Strawn said, because Pelosi and the Congress tend to more acutely rile an electorate dissatisfied with the political status quo.

“She’s a well-known and polarizing figure,” Strawn said of the San Franciscan.

What makes the Republicans gathered at an ocean-side resort here so upbeat, however, is the prospect of a coming election cycle in which many voters are so turned off at Obama and his party that they don’t even require much persuasion.

“The enthusiasm gap that existed for Republicans two years ago has flipped on its head,” said Strawn.

Beeson, who worked at the national party during the 2008 campaign and recently worked on Scott Brown’s victory in Massachusetts, said, “The intensity is off the charts in our base and among independents who are angry about the deficit, the economy and spending.”

And, Beeson continued: “Their base is depressed just like ours was in ’08. The pendulum has swung back.”