In 2008, President Barack Obama swept into the White House, and Senate Democrats eventually picked up nine seats, giving the new commander in chief the biggest Senate majority in decades. 

In every major race next year featuring a Senate Democratic incumbent, Obama is polling worse than the incumbent - in some cases, by a substantial margin - according to publicly released surveys.  

So rather than running for reelection on Obama's coattails, these Senate Democrats may end up facing questions over whether they can win with the president on the ballot.  

"That means Montanans have good taste," Democratic Sen. Jon Tester said with a laugh, referring to his approval ratings, which are far better than the president's in the Big Sky State. "I'm a nicer guy."  

In Nebraska, Obama's poll numbers are tanking while Sen. Ben Nelson, one of the country's most endangered Democratic incumbents, is doing marginally better.  

Nelson made clear in an interview that he won't tie himself to Obama or the Democratic Party.  

"All races will still be local, and the media will be talking about it nationally since it's a national race - when, in fact, it will be local races at the state level," Nelson insisted.  

Like Tester, Nelson has been attempting to show his independence from Obama and the Senate Democratic leadership, both on votes in the Senate and on TV. Both Nelson and Tester voted with Senate Republicans to block Obama's $447 billion jobs bill from coming to the Senate floor.  

And the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has already bankrolled a staggering $700,000 in ads on behalf of Nelson that characterize him as an independent voice. It is by far the most money spent by a well-funded incumbent this early in the cycle by a national committee.  

Obama's poor poll numbers, due in large part to high unemployment, the sputtering U.S. economy and record budget red ink, are shaping up as a big factor in Senate races across the country. Democrats are defending 23 Senate seats next year versus only 10 for Republicans in a chamber controlled by Democrats 53 to 47.  

"Everyone is going to have to 'go native,'" one Senate Democratic strategist said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "They have to focus on local issues, stay laser-focused on that and not worry about what Obama is doing or saying." Senate Democrats point to Majority Leader Harry Reid's 2010 reelection campaign, with which Reid was able to overcome horrific approval ratings and a GOP wave, as their template for victory in other tough races.

As a sitting president, Obama will have some big pluses. The Republican presidential field remains volatile, with many conservatives wary of Republican establishment favorite Mitt Romney and Texas Gov. Rick Perry showing signs of weakness.  

Obama has also continued to pump up his fundraising machine. Obama for America and the Democratic National Committee raked in $70 million in the third quarter alone and have $75 million in cash on hand. Obama's campaign team has spent millions of dollars building up in every key state, and the ground operation is expected to be formidable - which would, in turn, help House and Senate candidates. Reid and other Democratic leaders have already hit up the Obama campaign for millions to pay for get-out-the-vote operations.  

"Things will get better for Obama when there is a [GOP] nominee," said another Democratic insider. "He will be able to show a stark contrast on a bunch of issues, like Social Security, Medicare, infrastructure [spending], jobs [and] taxes. It won't just be a referendum on Obama, and that will help a lot of Democrats."  

Yet Senate Republicans believe that Obama remains the key to winning the majority. They mention Obama early and often in fundaising pitches and TV ads, and when a Democratic incumbent or challenger skips an Obama visit to their state - as both Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill and former Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine did recently - Republicans make sure to portray the president as toxic for Democrats.  

Texas Sen. John Cornyn, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said that if Obama's approval numbers stay low, in-cycle Senate Democrats will keep their distance from Obama and his policies.  

"One of the results of the class warfare and the divisive rhetoric that the president is using now is that I think he's slowly whittling his way down to just the core or base Democratic vote," Cornyn told POLITICO. "And independents are fleeing. That's not a recipe to win an election where you depend on not only the base vote but also independents."  

Washington Sen. Patty Murray, chairwoman of the DSCC, expressed faith in her colleagues' ability to win next year.  

"I've felt confident about our incumbents all year because they're hardworking, they know their states, they came here in a tough election cycle and they know how to fight," Murray said.

Murray also pointed out that Obama's get-out-the-vote operation will be key in states like Florida, where Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson is seeking a third term.  

"Getting out voters is essential to everyone," Murray added. 

Ben LaBolt, an Obama campaign spokesman, said that surveys show that voters of all stripes are backing the president's jobs plan, which most of the Democratic Caucus supports - and he took a shot at a potential rival. 

"The question Republican candidates around the country must ask is this: Do I want to run on a ticket with a candidate like Mitt Romney, who thinks Wall Street should write its own rules again and that middle-class families should have to pay for tax cuts for large corporations and the wealthiest?" LaBolt said. 

Sen. Robert Menendez ran the DSCC last cycle and is a front-runner to keep his seat, though the electorate in New Jersey remains volatile. 

Menendez dismisses recent poor public poll numbers. "I won last time with worse approval numbers." And the veteran lawmaker says he's not worried that Obama's disapproval ratings are a couple points worse because he doesn't have an opponent yet. 

"Right now, if you're unhappy about things, you only look at Barack Obama, and he's the president right now," Menendez said while in the Capitol this week. "Elections are about choices, and nobody knows what the choice really is." 

Ohio will be critical to Obama's reelection strategy, and it's where Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown could face a tough battle to win a second term. But Brown thinks that despite Obama's poor approval ratings in the Buckeye State - Obama was 10 points behind Brown in a poll last month - the president's campaign will help him with both turnout and messaging. 

"He's getting there," Brown said of having Obama on the ticket. "It might not help if the election were today, but there's always going to be a contrast. ... The fact that [Republicans] have a new person ahead of the polls every single week shows you the problems they have." 

In Missouri, McCaskill has faced bad headlines over hundreds of thousands of back taxes owed on a family-owned plane. But she also declared that her race is not about Obama, whose disapproval ratings are about 6 points higher than the senator's, according to a recent poll. 

"I am not worried about the president," McCaskill said. "My focus is on doing what's best for the people of Missouri."

Senate blocks $35B hiring bill  

President Barack Obama's jobs agenda hit another roadblock in the Senate on Thursday night, as the two parties remained locked in a bitter stalemate with the economy sputtering and tens of millions looking for work. 

In their first attempt to advance individual pieces of the president's sprawling American Jobs Act, Democrats fell short of the 60 votes needed to move forward a $35 billion package for states and localities to hire and prevent the layoffs of teachers and first responders.

A united GOP Conference, along with three members of the Senate Democratic Caucus - Sens. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) - voted 50-50 to block a debate on the package, which would have been funded by a 0.5 percent surtax on those earning more than $1 million.

"It seems all we care about is scoring political points to be used in the next election," said Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.). "Shame on us if the blame game is the best thing that we can do."

The vote is another blow to Obama's jobs agenda, as he struggles to find a new antidote to the economy after nearly four years of an unprecedented push by Washington that has so far failed to lead to a sustained recovery. And as the economic problems dominate his presidential campaign, the president has struggled to find consensus in a gridlocked Capitol, including in the Democratic-controlled Senate where the $35 billion plan garnered one fewer Democratic vote than his $447 billion proposal.

The Senate on Thursday night also rejected by a 57-43 vote a separate portion of the president's jobs bill, pushed by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), eliminating a much-criticized rule allowing federal and local agencies to withhold 3 percent of payments to contractors.

Ten Democrats, which included a mix of moderates and those up for reelection, voted for the McConnell amendment, but 60 votes were needed to break a Democratic-led filibuster.

"It turns out there is a very sensible provision in the president's second stimulus bill that would help businesses across the country," McConnell said late Thursday night.

But the $11.6 billion plan included cuts of $30 billion aimed at discretionary spending programs that would have been identified by the White House Office of Management and Budget, which opposed the measure on those grounds, saying such cuts would lead to a "serious disruption in a range of services."

"This is nothing more than a misdirected stunt by my friend, the Republican leader," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said on the floor. "The provision will be repealed but it should be done the right way."

The House is expected to take up a proposal slashing the so-called withholding provision next week, and Senate Democrats said they had their own measure as well that would be offset with higher taxes on oil and gas companies and eliminating certain foreign tax credits.

Repealing the withholding provision and pumping aid into states are two pieces of the much-larger $447 billion jobs plan Obama has advocated in a campaign-style, cross-country tour. The package consists of new spending on infrastructure to repair roads and bridges, new funding for school construction, incentives for companies to hire unemployed and out-of-work veterans and provide payroll tax breaks for employees. All of which would be paid for by a surtax on wealthy families.

But the failure of the two proposals Thursday night showed how heavy of a lift it will be for the president to declare victory on any single economic measure.

In a sharply worded statement, Obama attacked the Senate GOP for voting in unison to stop his proposal.

"For the second time in two weeks, every single Republican in the United States Senate has chosen to obstruct a bill that would create jobs and get our economy going again," he said. "That's unacceptable."

In the run-up to the Thursday votes, both sides angrily traded charges that the other was engaged in pure political gamesmanship. Democrats said Republicans were "rooting" for the economy to fail to hurt Obama's reelection chances, while the GOP said the White House and Democratic leaders were advancing policies with poison pills with no chance of clearing Congress in an attempt to pass on the blame for a bad economy.

The end-result left the two sides no closer to a deal, with the economy threatening to fall back into recession, the housing market struggling and some 24 million Americans either out of work or underemployed.

Last week, the president's American Jobs Act failed by nine votes to overcome a Republican-led filibuster, when a united GOP Conference and two moderate Democrats - Montana Sen. Jon Tester and Nebraska's Nelson - prevented the plan from even coming for debate, arguing it spent too much with uncertain results to the economy.

As a result, lawmakers from both parties have tried to carve out pieces of the sprawling package. On their first attempt at moving a piece of the jobs agenda, Democrats tried to advance the $35 billion state aid package, saying it would protect the jobs of 400,000 educators and thousands more first responders.

"I expect full accountability for every penny of taxpayer dollar that we spend," said Tester, who faces a tough reelection next year, but voted to break the filibuster even though he opposed the underlying bill. "I expect that when you invest in something, you get what you pay for."

Other moderate Democrats, like Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia, also voted to break the filibuster but opposed the plan on its merits for injecting too much cash into short-term public sector jobs.

Webb, in particular, was miffed about the proposal to tax ordinary income, saying on the floor last week that taxes should be increased on capital gains instead.

Giving Republicans additional ammunition was Reid himself, who said earlier this week that the private sector is doing "just fine."

"It's become increasingly clear to many Americans that Democrats in Washington have lost all sense of balance when it comes to the size and the scope of the federal government in Washington," McConnell said on the floor.

The failure of the packages highlights Washington's struggles to cope with two ongoing crises whose goals can sometimes conflict: Reining in a national debt that stands north of $14 trillion and creating jobs for the tens of millions looking for work.

And the joint problems have been clear since the final year of George W. Bush's administration, when Congress and the White House enacted the $124 billion stimulus legislation, a $158 billion tax cut package and the $700 billion bailout of the financial sector.

During Obama's time in office, there's been the $821 billion economic stimulus package, the $3 billion law creating the Cash for Clunkers program to boost auto sales, a $26 billion law last year also aimed at hiring educators, and an $858 billion law extending all the Bush-era tax cuts.

After Obama took office in 2009, Congress enacted the $821 billion economic stimulus package and a $3 billion law, creating the Cash for Clunkers program to bolster auto sales. And in 2010, Congress enacted a $26 billion law that also was targeted at hiring teachers and other public-sector workers. In addition to that, Obama signed into law an $858 billion bipartisan proposal in December to extend the Bush-era tax cuts for all income tax brackets.

While proponents say the action helped stabilize the economy, the unemployment rate stands at 9.1 percent.

Next week, the Senate is on recess, and will return at the beginning of next month with major deadlines approaching: Nov. 18 to fund the government and avoid a shutdown and Nov. 23 for the powerful deficit-slashing committee to find an agreement of $1.2 trillion in cuts.

In the meantime, Democrats want to move additional pieces of the president's jobs agenda, including incentives for hiring, pumping money into infrastructure and extending the payroll tax.

It's far from clear whether any will pass.