Welcome back to the Fourth Grade.

Barack Obama has decided that fiery self defense and withering mockery of Republicans are the best modes of attack as he tries to save Democrats from a drubbing in November’s mid-term elections.

Absent any reality-based defense of the dismal results his policies have delivered, the Smartest President Ever is returning to his original dance partner: rhetorical flourish.

Naturally, his minions in the press are swooning.

His swipes at Republicans and calls for change were a reminder of stump skills that few US politicians can match, recalling his 2008 campaign.

The AFP article then goes on to dutifully parrot the talking points without the faintest hint of examining their veracity. There is some allusion to the fact that things aren’t looking great for the Democrats but, again, there’s no speculation about whether the president might have something to do with that.

Let’s give the press credit where credit is due. The reporter digs deep and ponders the president’s motive for being snotty instead of eloquent.

Obama adopted a sarcastic tone, rarely seen back then, likely distilled from months of frustrating political combat in Washington.

The implication here is that it’s perfectly acceptable for President Obama to be whiny and cranky because he’s had such a tough time with Capitol Hill politics.

History tells us, of course, that the job is nothing but love and hugs for other presidents.

It makes sense for President Obama to return to the tactics that worked so magically in 2008 that it seemed as if he was educated at Hogwarts and not Harvard. The question now is whether there’s still magic in the wand or has it been irrevocably damaged by pointing it backwards at George W. Bush and not pointing it to the future as he did in 2008?

Candidate Barack Obama had plenty of bad things to say about his opponents in 2008 but his breakout momentum all came from the gooey, Oprah-friendly speeches about “hope” and a “new way” in American politics. People who previously shunned politics became zealous campaigners for the man who would change everything and make the world one big day at Disneyland. The politics of emotion that had become the hallmark of the American left had reached its zenith, propelling a man whose résumé was thinner than an Olsen twin after a purge day to the highest office in the land.

One of the reasons that the “political combat” has been so frustrating for President Obama is that he soon found out that the people who pay attention after elections aren’t mesmerized by pithy, empty speech-writing tricks the way his “Yes, we can!” hordes were. He’d spent so much time never really having to say anything that it was burdensome when he finally did.

Accountability is a fact of life for presidents yet this one seems to think he can throw a road block up at the end of George W. Bush’s second term keep it there. His “withering mockery” play is nothing but an extraordinarily tired reworking of the “Bush’s fault!” template that’s been used ad nauseam to explain away every glaring failure of the Obama administration. The press needs to understand that “juvenile blame” and “fiery self defense” are two very different things.

The Obama phenomenon in 2008 drew strength from newbies and disillusioned independents who were willing to be led almost anywhere, as long as it was away from the status quo. It was easy to make them nod first and hope they didn’t think later. Like a hungry college kid dreaming about Top Ramen, these people weren’t really craving substance so Barack Obama and his stump skills were perfect for them.

Without Obama being on the ticket, the likelihood isn’t great that the newbies are hanging around and the independents, according to every poll, have had enough ramen. The president’s snarky name-calling will naturally draw laughs when he’s preaching to the choir but will it move the people he needs to vote for Democratic candidates in November? Can a steady diet of derision motivate the way visions of an idyllic future do?

For some reason, Team Lightbringer seems to think so. My guess is that they hope constantly reminding everyone of what it was like leading up to November 2008 will make them get in a November 2008 state of mind. It sounds ridiculous but so does the notion that massive government involvement in health care will introduce efficiency and cost reductions.

Before conservatives get too comfortable, however, we shouldn’t discount the shelf-life of this approach as long as the press is complicit in automatically repeating whatever the administration wants put out there. I don’t know how many times I saw clips of Obama’s speech at the Harry Reid fundraiser last weekend that had absolutely no follow-up examination of the claims being made (even on Fox News).

This plan of attack by the Obama administration is perhaps the only transparent thing we’ve seen from it but that doesn’t mean people who aren’t predisposed to being leery regarding the president will notice how weak it is.

We can only hope their necks get tired from turning around to look at the past before November.