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What Obama needs the most

Let me finish tonight with what President Obama needs most.

Let me finish tonight with what President Obama needs most. He needs allies, potential confederates who'll get out there, who'll sing his praises, take punches for him and deliver some themselves and not only that, he needs political loyalists who have strong gut ties to the people who are going to decide this election.  Not just the college crowd that got him nominated and elected in 2008, but the scared, angry people who didn't go to college. I don't see a lot of them out there working and speaking for him.

Word is out that Obama is a "transactional" politician: he cuts deals with people, but he doesn't forge bonds. When is he going to bolster his political forces? And, what's the story with the people in his Cabinet? Where are they? Do they campaign for him? Do they stand up on the Sunday shows with passion and stick it to his critics?

I've never seen such a band of political neutrals. Come to think of it, who does speak up for Obama with any real passion these days? Democrats in Congress act as if they're in a different party, not just a different branch of government.

Obama needs battle-ready surrogates and doesn't have them. He needs allies who will go out there and get their brains knocked in. He needs troops. And the reason he doesn't have them, I suspect, is brutal: he hasn't recruited them, hasn't spent enough time with them; hasn't made them feel as though he needs an army.

He's lonely because he's wanted to be alone. He doesn't like the backslapping. He doesn't like hanging around with other politicians. Guess what? They've noticed. There's still time for Obama to build an Obama party between now and next fall's general election, but not much.

Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero comes out today.  Find out more at facebook.com/hardball.