Dreaming About The Senate

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Republicans will fight hard to change the odds everywhere Democrats think they have a chance. In states with bruising primaries, the G.O.P. has been holding successful fund raisers to pile up cash that will be dished out to whoever is the winner. Even Democratic stars like Obama will get roughed up. Before his candidacy imploded, Ryan last month had a young campaign worker with a videocam follow Obama (sometimes no more than a few feet away) in hopes of catching him saying something inconsistent with previous statements. After two weeks and a wave of publicity that made Ryan look bad, the cameraman disappeared. "This scorched-earth politics out there today is not getting things done," says Obama. "So what I do is tell a story about what's been lost in the American Dream and how we can recapture that dream." Democrats will be happy if they can just recapture the Senate. --With reporting by Pat Dawson/Talkeetna, Rita Healy/Denver, Kristin Kloberdanz/Chicago and Constance E. Richards/Greenville, S.C.