The Slatest

President Obama has long frustrated members of his own party by being reluctant to get involved in much of the ground game of Democratic political campaigns. Now things have changed and Obama is less concerned about the perceived independence of his political brand than with being able to move along legislation during his last years in office. Soon after his reelection victory, Obama began implementing plans to help Democrats win back the House in 2014, reports the Washington Post.

Obama will be raising money, recruiting candidates, and using his new nonprofit to help contenders, all in the hopes of gaining the 17 House seats Democrats need to win back the majority they lost in 2010. Case in point, the president has already committed to eight fundraisers for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee this year, compared with two in 2009.

Meanwhile, there is no sign that any kind of compromise on the sequester is any closer to becoming a reality, reports Reuters. Even though House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell both expressed optimism that the government won’t shut down, there are plenty of reasons to doubt. “Now that we are living in a post-sequestration world then, it’s right to be skeptical of pledges made by politicians about what won’t ever come to pass,” writes the Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza.