The nation's top Democratic strategists are anxious. By Gallup's measure, Democrats' advantage in party identity has narrowed from 17 percentage points in January to 5 points in August. President Obama's approval rating now bobs in the low 50s. He has lost Americans' favor at a larger and faster rate than most presidents since World War II.

It's not Republicans who concern Democrats. It's the return of old questions surrounding Democrats' competence.

Democratic political veterans believe Obama must, in a matter of months, begin to show the big reform to match his campaign's big promise. It explains why Democratic strategists almost uniformly subscribe to the prevailing view across Washington, that some form of legislation is better than a martyr's conclusion.

Several strategists believe Obama's administration has already "squandered" a good portion of the historic possibility that greeted his presidency.

"They are super-touchy right now. And they should be. They f--ked up," one top strategist said of this White House, who asked that his name be withheld so that he could speak candidly.

Nearly all of the leading Democratic strategists interviewed believe that Obama will recover--but when? There is, however, no sense of panic.

Ronald Reagan, after all, languished for two years in his first term with an approval rating below 50 percent. It would be far less likely for a president to become significantly more popular by his first autumn, as George H.W. Bush did.

Still, in the context of the 12 presidents since World War II, Obama's decline is only surpassed by Gerald Ford and Bill Clinton.

Democratic strategists view Obama's address to a joint session of Congress next week as the crucial opportunity to regain the political reins. It is an opportunity that suits Obama. Obama has seen the political precipice before, albeit in the Democratic primary and not as president.

These strategists are not of one mind on what Obama did wrong or should do now. Some say he was too liberal on domestic kitchen table issues, concerning spending and the role of government. Some say he made no substantive attempt to be moderate and bipartisan, and is partly complicit in Republicans' quick turn toward near uniform opposition.

There is the view that Obama should have pushed health care reform earlier and harder, vested himself personally in the fight and focused on one domestic issue at a time, as some argued in the first months of his presidency--criticism this White House and most major pundits waved off early on.

Some strategists see disorganized messaging from Obama's inner circle, the mirror of the acclaim Obama earned during the 2008 campaign.

Looking ahead, Democratic strategists disagree on perhaps the most fraught political decision this president may yet face: reconciliation--a controversial parliamentary tactic that would allow Democrats to pass health care reform with only the slimmest majority.

"Democrats paid a big political price around health care reform [in the past] not because we tried to accomplish it but because nothing passed. Pass meaningful reform that pushes health care reform, hopefully does something about costs, expanding coverage, and choice," said Tad Devine, a longtime advisor to Democrats like John Kerry and the late Edward Kennedy.

"The Republicans have made a calculation, and as a matter of politics I don't think it's a bad calculation, they've made the calculation that stopping the president is the ultimate way to regain political power," Devine continued. "In light of that, [Obama] should just recognize that there is not going to be meaningful cooperation on any meaningful domestic issue, especially before the midterm election."

But is health care reform so politically urgent that if a 60-vote majority escapes Democrats, they should utilize reconciliation?

"Absolutely, unequivocally, without a doubt," Devine responded. "I think this is a straight political call. He will be hurt most if they don't move ahead."

Democratic critics of reconciliation see the tactic as too costly. On issues like Afghanistan, as Devine agrees, bipartisanship is proving crucial.

Some conservative Democrats in Congress have moderate to conservative constituencies to answer to and will be unable to rely on Obama's coattails, shorter though they are, to boost Democratic turnout--with him off the ballot in 2010.

"I think if he does reconciliation he'll divide the country or he can get pretty darn close to it," said Doug Schoen, a moderate who helped Bill Clinton regain his political standing after floundering early in his presidency.

"Obama's gotta compromise. If he doesn't get a reasonable agreement on health care his presidency will be at stake," Schoen continued. "Part of building consensus is trying. Compromise more and find ways to get something done, rather than push unilaterally."

Like Schoen, Mark Penn also served as a top advisor in the Clinton White House. In Obama's address next week, Penn hopes Obama lays out the components of reform that he views as essential. Vice President Joe Biden has indicated that Obama will get specific in his address.

"Obama needs to draw clear lines in the sand about what he is fighting for and to put it in concrete terms. He has been successful before at rallying public support, but this is his biggest post-election test," Penn wrote in an exchange over email.

"First and foremost there is no positive message--no driving dream that Americans see as benefiting themselves and their children. Obama has to explain the goal not just in terms of cost and coverage but in terms of making our lives better, longer and healthier," wrote Penn, who most recently served as the top strategist on Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign.

"Second, [Obama] has to pick those elements of the plan he believes are essential to those goals and argue for them ... " Penn continued. "And third, he should stop viewing bipartisanship as watering down his plan and see it as taking the best and clearest ideas from all sides, so that everyone is a winner," a tactic Clinton utilized with welfare reform.

That Democrats are even at this point, debating how Obama can recover, has left many dismayed.

"This White House is smaller than the campaign was. If you look at the people around the table and the different sort of thinking, the bigness and the broadness of that marketplace of ideals that sounded and felt different in the campaign is not where this White House is," the Democratic strategist said, who asked to speak on background.

"He can hit the reset button and get bigger. His ability to get bigger is the way out of this," the strategist continued. "You are not going to sell something this big and transformative on an individual self-interested basis."

The pang of opportunity lost was never far behind this strategist's words. And he was not the only Democrat who used "squandered" terms.

"Correct. [Obama's White House] squandered virtually all the goodwill they had when they began," Schoen replied, when told of his fellow Democrat's comments. "Sad for them and sad for America."

It's easy to forget how rare a moment 2008 provided for Democrats. Obama came into office with a more significant mandate than any Democrat since Lyndon Johnson. Democrats' control of Congress is stronger than even during Clinton's first years. But however distant that January feels today, some top strategists remain confident.

"If the president can succeed in [passing health care reform] the president will have a win," Devine said. "The one thing that can hurt us badly is to have this go nowhere. People want government that is effective."

Yet to Joe Trippi, a liberal strategist who helped shape Howard Dean's 2004 insurgent campaign, the emphasis on passage over principle is also disconcerting.

"There is some fear that he will pass anything and say it's health care reform," Trippi said, expressing a sentiment indicative of the progressive caucus in the House. "Go for what you really think reform needs to be because that's more likely to turn into the compromise you want."

And yet despite the pervasive intraparty debate and Democrats' slide from a rare peak in power, Trippi remains optimistic. Trippi is a strategist famous in political circles for wearing his passion on his sleeve. This time he's unruffled.

"People need to remember one thing, there is a reason that we all talk about how Harry Truman called for this in the 1940s," Trippi said. "It's a tough thing to do and if it were easy, it would be done."