ACHILLES' TORSO:

Obama Agenda in Traction (John Fund, 2/19/10, WSJ)

The nonpartisan Cook Political Report released a new update on the 2010 elections yesterday. A full 54 Democratic seats in the House are now rated as "highly competitive," with nearly half already seeing the GOP challenger running even or ahead of the Democratic incumbent. Only six GOP-held seats are in play as possible Democratic pickups. Republicans need to win 40 seats to take back control of the House.

Nervousness in Democratic ranks will be heightened even more by Cook's finding that a total of 95 Democratic seats are potentially vulnerable -- almost two-fifths of the entire Democratic caucus.