Fred Barnes recommends in his latest Weekly Standard piece that President Obama “escape the ideological grip of congressional Democrats and the liberal base of the Democratic party (they?re one and the same),” following the example Bill Clinton set after 1994 election setbacks.

But Barnes has seen no signs that the current president is moving in that direction:

Certainly there was nothing in Obama?s State of the Union address
last week to indicate he understands the fix he?s in or has devised a
credible way to get out of it. His message, though he didn?t put it in
quite these words, was that he?d rather fight for unpopular liberal
policies than switch to broadly appealing centrist ones. 

A bad omen for Obama and Democrats was the pleased-as-punch response
of Capitol Hill?s top Republican, Senate Minority Leader Mitch
McConnell. ?It makes my job a little easier than if he were moving to
the middle and picking up people,? McConnell says. ?I na?vely thought
he was going to do a course correction.?

McConnell characterizes the Obama strategy as: ?Ignore the public,
we know what?s best, full speed ahead.? The practical effect is to
yield the political high ground to Republicans. ?He can call us the
party of no till he?s blue in the face,? McConnell says. ?It depends on
what you?re saying no to.?