But with the economy slowly crawling back to life, a shift in messaging at the White House and a Republican push on social issues, Democrats are accepting — and in some cases openly embracing — the inevitable yoking of their campaigns to Mr. Obama’s as election-year activities accelerate. On Capitol Hill, Democrats have begun to mention Mr. Obama more often and have gone out of their way to publicly back some of his proposals. Democrats say Mr. Obama’s near monophonic campaigning in recent months — highlighting his differences with Republicans on policies affecting the middle class — is far more resonant in their districts and states than defending the health care law or the stimulus package, issues that have dogged Democrats. Further, while Republicans spent most of 2011 dominating the national conversation on the federal deficit and seeking the upper hand in Congressional budget battles, Democrats have found themselves this winter on the more popular side of fights, including the recent one over a payroll tax holiday, which they believe Republicans turned into an unforced error for their team. “I think it’s definitely shifting now,” said Senator Thomas R. Carper, Democrat of Delaware. “In part it’s just because the economy is improving. I don’t know that it’s springtime just yet, but the wind is coming back.” This month, Mr. Obama’s pivot into an “all of the above” energy policy platform, one more or less lifted from the Republicans’ 2008 campaign, is something moderate Democrats, many of whom support things like the proposed Keystone XL pipeline that Mr. Obama has blocked, are also happy to hear. “His focus on building jobs and restoring some stability in the middle class is what I have been focusing on all along,” said Representative Timothy H. Bishop of New York. “In 2010 the conversation was almost exclusively about health care, and there was so much emotion and so much fury. I think the climate is much calmer now.” Republicans believe strongly that Mr. Obama remains a significant liability in states like Missouri, Montana and North Carolina, all places where Democrats are in jeopardy, as well as many Congressional districts where his policies remain radioactive. Further, creeping gas prices, an escalation of the conflict in the Middle East or other factors could create severe head winds for Mr. Obama this year. “By all means we would encourage Claire McCaskill, Jon Tester, Tim Kaine and all other Senate Democratic candidates to campaign on the president’s record of massive government mandates, record spending, lost jobs and a $15 trillion debt,” said Brian Walsh, a spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee. While it is far too early to see if Democratic incumbents are willing to actually campaign with Mr. Obama, the evidence of their willingness to align with him is legislatively apparent. For instance, Senator Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, who last year proclaimed the president’s large jobs package as too big to get his vote, happily picked off the payroll tax cut component of the bill and made it his own. Mr. Tester, in a tough re-election race in Montana, also focused on one piece of the bill — a tax break for employers who hire veterans, which would be paid for by a surtax on millionaires — and claimed it for his own. Some lawmakers are seizing on what they perceive as the best part of Mr. Obama’s record, and running with it, rhetorically. On the House floor recently, Representative Steve Cohen of Tennessee said, “I want to say that I’m proud to support President Obama, his jobs plan, his efforts to maintain the automobile industry strong in America, and to support him in Libya and root out Qaddafi and Al Qaeda in other places.” Joyce Beatty, who won the Democratic primary Tuesday for a House seat in Ohio, has already sided with the president, ending a recent campaign advertisement with a shot of herself and Mr. Obama. Senator Mark Begich of Alaska, who in September called Mr. Obama’s proposal to eliminate tax breaks for oil companies “frustrating,” said last week that he was buoyed to hear Mr. Obama shift the conversation to his campaign-year energy policy, which includes increased domestic oil production. “He goes down to Florida and actually mentions energy?” Mr. Begich said. “To me, that’s what we should be focused on. We should talk about what middle-class Americans care about, and that’s jobs, the economy, their tax rates.” Mr. Begich, who is not up for re-election this year, even said that the much-maligned stimulus package had been good for his state, and that he was happy to embrace it. “I am the only member of the delegation that voted for the recovery money,” he said. “You bet I talk about it.” Many Republicans also concede that Mr. Obama is not quite as effective a symbol as he was in 2010, and that they will have to focus harder on specific policies where they part ways with Democrats to get their message out. “It’s probably not as much as a liability as you saw in 2010,” said Representative Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania, about ties between Congressional Democrats and the White House. Democrats also see opportunities to seize on cases in which Republicans have distanced themselves from some of the positions of Mitt Romney, a leading Republican presidential candidate. In Michigan, Representative Fred Upton and other Republicans have said they disagree with Mr. Romney’s criticism of the auto industry bailout, and in foreclosure-wracked Nevada, Representative Joe Heck said he was not on the same page as Mr. Romney when it came to housing policies. Of course, Democrats will not have a choice; Republicans are already running campaigns that will link them to the president in a negative way. “I think without any question my opponent will, whether it is true or not, connect me to him,” Mr. Bishop said. So they say they are trying to embrace what they can, and worry less about what they cannot stop. “I try to control the things I can control, and the things I can’t control I just need to be honest about.” Mrs. McCaskill said. “In many ways the president can be an asset, in some ways he is definitely not an asset in my state. It’s a mixed bag.” The recent drop in Missouri’s unemployment rate, she hopes, will help her in areas of her state where Mr. Obama remains unpopular and is likely to run behind this year. “I really think come November, if most Missourians are paying attention, they are going to realize it’s in their best economic interest to re-elect the president,” she said. “And me, of course.” Other Democrats said they would try to cherry-pick Mr. Obama’s campaign themes, while still keeping their physical distance. “The message that the president is running on is a message that most Democrats can get on board with now,” said Representative Daniel Lipinski, who represents a more conservative district in and around Chicago. “The people need a champion now, and that’s more and more the president.” However, asked if he was longing to campaign with Mr. Obama, Mr. Lipinski said, “I am not answering that question.”
