I have a hard time imagining what could transpire at the convention this week that would significantly help Obama/Biden in any sort of way that might last up through the election.  I suspect others are as well, which is why the expectations are being set below low.

In theory there is an opportunity to help set the record straight with some who haven't made up their minds about Obama long ago, and in a close election their votes could be decisive.  I am not sure how many among those who actually watch party conventions look to them for that purpose, or are open to a convention "educating" them in this way.  Most of the political pundits hate boring facts and substance, and will say so, just as they did when Bill Clinton delivered substantive, lengthy State-of-the-Union addresses, which were highly popular and effective for him with the parts of the public that bothered to tune in.

I distinguish between the real questions I have versus what is likely to be seen as most helpful to the ticket's chances for winning.  My real questions are all about, still, what does this guy really believe and what would he set about trying to get done, not just in a 2nd term if he gets one, but for the remainder of his presidency if he should lose?  

I honestly have no clue on that.  None whatever.  I can all too easily imagine him negotiating some "grand bargain" on deficit reduction during the lameduck Congress following the election if he does lose, as his attempt at one more "legacy" achievement, and I'm heavily inclined to believe that if he does that it will be a policy disaster.  

I could, on the positive end, imagine him pushing much harder on further job creating-stimulus than he has since 2009, and on real and smart (economy-helping with no bad precedent setting) foreclosure relief, IF he gets enough pressure to do that, which is a huge IF.  Nothing he is saying so far suggests to me that in his heart or in his plans and to succeed with any of that he would need to try to nationalize the election by making change in the Congressional lineup something of much more explicit and high profile importance to him.  So far I have seen little if any evidence of that, either.

There is no vision right now for either a 2nd term or a better American future pursued in a 2nd term coming from him.  He might be saving that for his convention speech.  He might be saving that for the debates.  He might be saving that for some later, more extended TV ads.  The Catfood party's vision is immeasurably worse than any kind of "muddling through", small-bore Clintonesque 2nd term and deserves to be rejected resoundingly at the polls.  

In America we tend to want to do better than muddle through when we know we are hurting and in trouble.  As we do.

Obama's strategy so far appears to be that enough voters will decide not to fire him for a still bad economy because they define the question not as "do I feel Obama has really delivered?" but "For all Obama's faults and disappointments aren't the Republicans just too scary to trust?"  Those who correctly and accurately identify the many ways in which pure obstruction by the GOP has prevented more good things from happening may, like me, find it curious that Obama has not made more of a point of this while tying it to the critical need to elect a forward-thinking Congress.  He risks coming off as making too many excuses if he does that--which is why, if he does up the ante on GOP obstructionism as a major hindrance during his first, he needs to make the forward-looking point about what he can and will do in a 2nd term if the voters give him a constructive Congress as well as a 2nd term.

So looping this back to this week's convention and what I hope will come out of it, I guess 3 main things: correct some of the worst misinformation, hopefully in a more fun, playful way that educates as a side effect; offer some kind of a narrative as an alternative to the "Obama fail" one the GOP is offering that enables voters to make some sense out of the last 4 years; and say enough about what he would like to do in a 2nd term to give people tuning in reasons to think he has grown in office and offers some hope for improving things if he is re-elected and gets a better Congress to work with than he's had the last 2 years.  

The last of these, if he attempts it at the convention, may need to be done in a tone radically different from the high rhetoric of his first campaign.  If he aims for high rhetoric he risks reminding many viewers who feel disappointed in him that they feel like they've seen that movie before and haven't liked it as much as they thought they were going to.  A chunk of the public thought it was in love with him the first time around.  But the relationship has moved on.  It's no longer in what my wife likes to call the "you like broccoli, too!!" phase of the courtship and is much more now about how the relationship might be made to work.  

Practically speaking that has to include Congress in some higher profile way than it has so far.  It would be difficult and perhaps ill-advised for him to ask people who are in some cases a leadpipe cinch to elect a Republican House or Senate member to elect a Democrat instead.  He has to try to make it about electing people who are offering worthy ideas that realistically stand to help ordinary Americans and not just those who are already wealthy--our country belonging to all of us, most of us believe--instead of the same old failed policies that have gotten us in trouble, and who are also committed to working in good faith to address the country's problems.  Not about partisan politics per se.  And holding them accountable for doing so after the votes have been counted, since we know that democracy is not a spectator sport. 

I'm not suggesting that what I am looking for is necessarily what is most likely to help Obama/Biden's chances, nor that the convention is the only or necessarily the best venue to try to provide more or better grounded reasons for thinking we as a country might be able to do better than gridlock or just muddling through the next 4 years.  Obama is not going to be able to rekindle anything like the sense of optimism and hope that existed 4 years ago.  I'm not even sure that would be a good thing, even if it were possible.  There was a lot of illusion and unreality tied up with the 2008 campaign.