First Posted: 01- 4-10 04:18 PM   |   Updated: 01- 4-10 04:50 PM

Democratic incumbents face the most threatening political environment since the Republican landslide of 1994 -- and they know it.

The trends are all moving in the wrong direction. Voters are shifting to the right; white antipathy to the President has intensified; the popular consensus backing Obama and his agenda has collapsed in less than a year; and a growing number of center-conservative House Democrats are jumping ship. It's not that voters are suddenly becoming big fans of the Republican Party -- its poll numbers are falling just as rapidly as the Democrats' -- but political scientists and strategists from across the spectrum agree that...