President Barack Obama believes in the saving grace of the federal government.

But do the American people?

In a time of economic uncertainty and fear, that is the core question implicit - and sometimes explicit - on Election Day 2009.

After a year of sweeping, even breathtaking governmental action to revive the economy - bailouts, stimulus packages, new regulations and trillions of newly printed dollars and debt - is the country really better off and on the road to recovery?

The answer that Obama and the Democrats will hear tonight is likely to be a loud "we're not sure." Not that the Republicans should gloat; voters distrust their party as much, if not more.

Whatever the final tallies, it's clear that our politics are back to square one: to the economy and what government can best do (or not do) to salvage and sustain it. The culture wars of past decades will never end, but we no longer have the luxury to dwell obsessively on matters of behavior and lifestyle.

Economic insecurity is what put candidate Obama over the top in 2008; voters put aside their cultural concerns about him. But now that same economic fear - and doubts about the wisdom of Obama's solutions - is boosting Republican chances.

Scrape away the personal and tactical factors, and the pattern is clear in the course of the contests around the country this fall.

In Virginia, Democrats tried to derail Republican Bob McDonnell's bid for the governorship by focusing on his roots in hard-right political evangelism. And yes, McDonnell was the product of Pat Robertson's Regent University; and yes, McDonnell had written a thesis in 1989 expressing disdain for homosexuality, feminism and sex outside of marriage.