In early 2009, the newly appointed White House social secretary mused about the "endless possibilities" ushered in by her boss's sweeping victory the previous November.
"We have the best brand on earth: the Obama brand," Desirée Rogers insisted.
It's been a while since anyone in Barack Obama's inner circle dared make a claim that bold. Still, until Tuesday, many were insisting the President's cachet was a plus for Democrats.
White House officials channelling Mr. Obama were telling reporters that if some swing-state Democrats went down in Tuesday's midterm elections, it would be because they had disassociated themselves from the only person capable of mobilizing the party's disparate base.
Democrats in Maryland, Wisconsin, Maine and Illinois who invited Mr. Obama to campaign with them were supposed to have the last laugh, riding the President's coattails to victory as young Hispanic and African-American voters responded to their hero's pleas to get to the polls.
Well, guess what? Almost all of the blue-state Democrats who embraced Mr. Obama lost their races, too. In Maryland, the Democrat running for governor had a huge lead in the polls before Mr. Obama campaigned with him last month. On Tuesday, he lost by almost double digits.
The Obama brand, or what's left of it, is now a niche product. If Republicans have a problem attracting minority voters, the Obama era has left Democrats with the opposite problem. White voters broke for Republicans 60 per cent to 38 per cent on Tuesday, according to some exit polls.
With so little political capital left, the odds are against Mr. Obama accomplishing much during his final two years in office. His best hope may lie in exploiting the long-standing relationship between Vice-President Joe Biden, a former senator and Mr. Obama's go-to man in negotiations with the U.S. Congress, and Republican Mitch McConnell, the new Senate majority leader.
Mr. McConnell is an establishment Republican eager to "govern" rather than simply score points. That should make it easier to raise the U.S. debt ceiling than it has been in the recent past. It should also make it easier for Mr. Obama to win authority, denied by the Democrat-controlled Senate, to complete critical trade deals with Europe and 10 Pacific Rim countries, including Canada.
Still, Mr. McConnell will also have to deal with renegades within his own ranks, as Senators Ted Cruz and Rand Paul launch likely presidential bids. They will frustrate deal-making with the White House. And it's not clear that, at this point, Mr. Obama much cares, despite Wednesday's vows to "work together."
White House aides have repeatedly intimated the President is prepared to use his executive authority to bypass Congress to overhaul the immigration system and fight climate change. If placating the Democratic base takes precedence over deal-making with Congress, it likely spells bad news for the Keystone XL pipeline.
In a few months, though, the first 2016 presidential election candidates will launch their campaigns. Barely a year from now, the country will turn to the presidential primaries. The post-Obama era is upon us.
Many of those who stand to shape that era were catapulted to the forefront by their breakout victories on Tuesday. Arkansas senator-elect Tom Cotton has been dubbed the "perfect Republican," a 37-year-old Harvard Law School grad and veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Not even repeated pleas from native son Bill Clinton could not save the Democratic incumbent.
By winning re-election by huge margins in critical swing states, Republican governors John Kasich of Ohio and Scott Walker of Wisconsin earned invaluable bragging rights they could use to launch presidential bids.
Utah's Mia Love became the first African-American woman to win a Republican seat in Congress. The Brooklyn-born daughter of Haitian immigrants has a compelling story to tell. She is a godsend for the GOP.
On the Democratic side, Rhode Island Governor-elect Gina Raimundo, 43, won despite opposition by the public sector workers unhappy with measures she took as state treasurer to rein in pension costs. Her no-nonsense determination has made her a Democratic star to watch.
So goes the 2014 midterms. As one brand falters, perhaps irrevocably, others are born.
Konrad Yakabuski