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For President Obama"s supporters, watching his speech at a Milwaukee labor rally on Monday was old-fashioned fun from a leader who hasn't given them all that much fun in a while. To draw enough Democratic-leaning voters back into the electorate to stave off disaster, he'll have to stay in fighting form for the next two months.

Even his most controversial line served a mobilizing purpose. "They talk about me like a dog," Obama said, chuckling about the Republicans. "That's not in my prepared remarks, but it's true." The reminder of all furniture and false charges thrown Obama's way by the G.O.P. (and by the farther reaches of the right) was a call for the cavalry of his own supporters. It was a way of saying: Are you going to let them get away with this?