Five things Barack Obama needs to accomplish in Charlotte

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Nearly half of American voters say they’ll vote against Barack Obama no matter what.

That doesn’t give the Democratic president much wiggle room as he tries to win re-election in a politically polarized America amid a weak recovery from the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.

So, with the presidential contest up for grabs, what does Barack Obama need to do at the Democratic National Convention to take a clear lead against Republican challenger Mitt Romney?

Here are five things that would make President Obama’s week successful:

1. Take back the mantle of “strong leader.”

Obama-bashers at the Republican National Convention scored some political points last week when they attacked the president’s leadership skills, his ability (and willingness) to transcend partisanship and, as former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice put it, “leading from behind” on foreign policy. Democratic convention planners need to convince undecided voters that Obama is a bold leader who ordered the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, a courageous leader who fought for an auto industry bailout despite strong public opposition and a tough leader who fought Republican obstructionists as he tried to keep the economy from slipping into Depression.

Perception is reality in American politics. President Obama needs to change public perceptions.

2. Reduce the Democratic Party’s enthusiasm gap.

Polls show that Republicans are now more excited about voting in November than are Democrats. With the electorate so evenly divided, turnout is going to be crucial. So Obama’s mission in Carolina is clear.

“First and foremost they need to mobilize the base,” said pollster James Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project in Austin.

That means a lot of red-meat rhetoric for the left as the Democrats try to maximize turnout among the Occupy movement followers, under-30 voters, union workers, environmentalists, social liberals, minorities and anti-war activists.

3. Plant seeds of doubt about Mitt Romney.

The Democrats will have failed in Charlotte if they don’t do two things: Convince some voters that Mitt Romney is out of touch with the concerns of middle-class Americans and that he is willing to advocate extreme policy positions to cozy up to his party’s right wing. Three essential targets are minority voters (with issues including immigration reform, Voter ID laws and redistricting), young voters (gay marriage, education funding, student loans and health insurance coverage for twenty-somethings) and women (examples: Obama’s Lily Ledbetter anti-discrimination law, abortion and family planning funding).

4. Convince Americans that “hope” and “change” were not empty slogans.

Republicans did a good job of lampooning the slogans Obama used with great effectiveness four years ago. Romney’s speech addressed the swing voters who were “disappointed” in Obama (as opposed to the core Republicans who have hated him since Day One).

“Hope and Change had a powerful appeal,” Romney said in his acceptance speech in Tampa. “But tonight I’d ask a simple question: If you felt that excitement when you voted for Barack Obama, shouldn’t you feel that way now that he’s President Obama? You know there’s something wrong with the kind of job he’s done as president when the best feeling you had, was the day you voted for him.”

Obama, whose personal favorable rating have always been higher than his job-performance number, can’t afford to have former supporters develop a case of “buyer’s remorse” this fall.

“That has to be done with nuance,” said University of Texas political scientist Sean Theriault. “I think Americans are tiring a bit of Obama.”

5. Make the election a choice about two competing economic visions.

If the 2012 election is a referendum on the state of the economy — or President Obama’s stewardship of the economy — he’ll probably lose. After all, the party in power was swept away by economically pinched voters in France, Britain, Mexico Greece, Italy and Spain.

Only 37 percent of Americans now say Obama has been a good economic steward, according to the most recent Gallup Poll, and 71 percent tell the ABC News/Washington Post poll that the president’s handling of the economy will be a “major factor” in their voting decision.

So the Democrats need to contrast Obama’s economic plan, including spending restraint and tax increases on wealthy individuals and small businesses, with Romney’s program of deep spending cuts accompanied by tax cuts that tilt heavily toward the rich. You’ll hear a lot about Romney-Ryan plans to partially privatize Social Security and to turn Medicare into a voucher program for Americans under the age of 55.

Democrats are eagerly giving the media a preview of the rhetorical assault to come.

“People who tuned in hoping for some sense of a roadmap to the future from Gov. Romney (Thursday) night, all they got were snarky lines and gauzy reminisces of the past,” David Axelrod, the Obama campaign’s chief strategist, said in a conference call with reporters. “(Obama’s) speech is going to reflect the thinking of a leader that has a clear sense of what we need to do to continue to repair the damage done by the recession and reclaim the economic security many Americans have lost.”