White House panicking over elections

With many polls indicating the Republicans may win back control of the House of Representatives (and possibly the Senate as well) in the upcoming mid-term elections, Jim VandeHei, the executive editor of Politico, told CBS' "Face the Nation" that the Obama administration is in a horrible position.

"Does the White House understand this?" asked guest host Harry Smith. "Do you feel any sense of panic or concern" on the part of the administration?

"They get it. There's panic. There's concern," VandeHei said. "The reality for this administration stinks, politically and practically, when it comes to the economy. You're not going to be able to change that 9.6-percent unemployment figure. You can't get anything from Congress in the next couple of months."

CBS Congressional correspondent Nancy Cordes said the Democrats are distancing themselves from President Obama.

"Not only are they running away from President Obama, they're running away from being Democrats in some cases. In some races you actually see the Democratic candidates not really mentioning that they're a Democrat in their campaign ads," Cordes said.

In 2006, GOP candidates tried to run away from their party and it didn't work then. It's not going to work now - not when your opponent can make sure voters don't forget the party affiliation of the incumbent.

Obama is set to announce new "stimulus" programs this week, including a $100 billion tax cut for businesses. This is a tacit admission by the White House that their original stimulus plan was fatally flawed in that it was geared more to giving goodies to their political allies than in getting the economy going.

At this point, $100 billion is too little, too late.