Obama to Dems: Step Away From the Ledge

Chicken Little syndrome is running rampant among Democrats following President Obama's lackluster debate performance and subsequent polling turmoil, but prominent supporters are telling people to snap out of the freakout. Sure, maybe the Big Bird ad wasn't the salve many Dems craved, but insiders say the president's recent flubs are "unsettling but hardly fatal," reports Politico. And there's an upside to the panic—donations are flowing in, says the New York Times. “That’s my party: Irrational overconfidence followed by irrational despair,” says a strategist.

Obama himself went on the offense yesterday in Ohio, accusing Romney of "salesmanship" but failing at "leadership;" his camp urged staffers to put their heads down and keep working. “Did we forget no-drama Obama?” asks Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer. Meanwhile, Dems are looking to Joe Biden to hit Paul Ryan where it hurts during tomorrow's VP debate. At Politico, Roger Simon reminds Biden that he was sworn in as a senator when Ryan was a 2-year-old, and urges him to forgo policy in favor of personal bloodletting, which the media will eat up. "Joe's gonna take out the old meat-ax and go to work," says one Dem strategist. (More Obama 2012 stories.)