While reveling in these fights, the president has not done nearly as much to explain what he would do in a second term, particularly to accelerate the still-sluggish economic recovery. Unless he fills in that picture more effectively, these wedge issues might not hold his key supporters, much less prevent further erosion among the groups, such as blue-collar and older whites, who resisted him even in 2008. Put simply, Obama may not win another term unless he provides Americans a better idea of what he would do with it.

He has set some priorities. Last September, he issued a series of near-term job-creation proposals headlined by a public-private bank to increase investment in infrastructure; grants to states to prevent layoffs of teachers and other public employees; and a payroll-tax cut. In his State of the Union address, Obama added a grab bag of tax breaks for companies that manufacture in the U.S.; a new community-college-based job-training initiative; the "Buffet Rule" to set a minimum 30 percent tax for millionaires; and a plan to ease home refinancing. He consistently calls for raising income taxes on the rich.

Many of these ideas might be worthwhile. But even in combination, it's difficult to imagine them seizing the imagination or soothing the anxieties of economically strained voters. "There's no big economic theme," says Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the conservative American Action Forum. "He is unwilling to lay out an agenda ... and, as a result, he's constantly picking these micro-fights aimed at chosen constituencies."

Obama has engaged GOP rival Mitt Romney over the economy, but primarily at the level of philosophy and biography. Usually Republican presidential candidates stress broad ideological arguments about Washington's economic role while Democrats tout individual programs. So far, Romney and Obama have reversed roles. Even without clarifying every detail, Romney has identified an ambitious list of programmatic goals, particularly cutting taxes, imposing a constitutional limit on federal spending, and converting Medicare into a premium-support, or voucher, system. While aides promise more specifics, Obama to date has broadly defended the need for government intervention in the economy and portrayed Romney's approach as both a return to President Bush's policies that preceded the 2008 crash and a boon to the rich.

Obama's holy grail is to tie Romney's campaign agenda to his record at Bain Capital--to argue that Romney's public platform mirrors a private career that enriched the few at the expense of the many. Obama tellingly encapsulated that argument this week when asked about Romney's business record: "This is not a distraction," Obama said. "This is what this campaign's going to be about ... what is a strategy for us to move this country forward, in a way where everybody can succeed?"