The White House official with the strongest credentials when it comes to running a Congressional midterm election — Rahm Emanuel, who returned Democrats to power in 2006 as chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee — is wrapped up at the moment in his own deliberations about whether to run for mayor of Chicago and is expected to announce his decision as early as Friday. And even before that issue came up, he was busy managing everything from Mideast policy to legislative affairs in his job as White House chief of staff.  Mr. Emanuel does not attend the Monday night strategy sessions; he has given oversight of the White House political operation to his deputy, Jim Messina, who also has policy responsibilities. But party leaders say that when they make requests for the president’s time — to attend a fund-raiser, or send an e-mail solicitation — nothing happens until Mr. Emanuel signs off.  Mr. Obama does not get regular political briefings the way he does, say, on the economy or the war in Afghanistan; rather, Mr. Messina updates the president on developments during the morning meeting with senior advisers. When Mr. Obama is campaigning on the road, Mr. Messina fills him in on local races.  “The president is not a natural consumer of polling cross-tabs the way some previous presidents are,” said Dan Pfeiffer, Mr. Obama’s communications director, who also attends the Monday night sessions. “He is very committed to doing everything he can, he is interested in how these people — many of whom are his friends — are doing. But he has too much on his plate to focus on politics full time.”  There have been tensions with members of his party on Capitol Hill over whether Mr. Obama is more interested in advancing his legislative agenda than protecting vulnerable Democrats, though party leaders say the White House has been far more responsive to them in recent months. Democrats are loath to criticize Mr. Obama’s political shop publicly. One said the team was “on a learning curve,” particularly in the early days of the administration, when “politics wasn’t their priority.” And supporters say pitfalls were inevitable, if only because running a country is tougher than running for office.  “It’s easier in a campaign to control the dialogue, it’s easier to control your message,” said Steven Elmendorf, a Democratic strategist. “When you’re governing, it’s harder. You have the Congress, which is a big complicated thing, and outside events over which you have no control.”  Inside the White House, strategy is guided by a diffuse collection of advisers, both inside and outside the administration, who attend the Monday night sessions, as well as a separate Wednesday-night dinner meeting at the home of Mr. Axelrod. They include marquee names like Mr. Axelrod; Joel Benenson, Mr. Obama’s pollster; and Mr. Plouffe, who came up with the idea for the Tuesday event in Madison, one of four old-fashioned political rallies that will take the president to Pennsylvania, Ohio and Nevada between now and Election Day.  Managing the White House political operation are two lower-profile operatives: Mr. Messina, whose deep ties to the Senate have taken him to Nevada several times this year to help oversee the campaign operation of the endangered Democratic leader, Harry Reid; and Patrick Gaspard, the soft-spoken political director, whose roots are in union organizing and politics in New York. Last year, Mr. Gaspard angered some Democrats when he inserted the White House into New York politics by trying to talk Gov. David A. Paterson out of seeking re-election.  Frustrations between the White House and Congressional Democrats boiled over during the summer, when Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, infuriated party leaders by suggesting that they might lose control of the House. Not long afterward, Representative Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, who leads the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, paid Mr. Emanuel a visit.  “We laid out very clearly the way we wanted the president to be engaged, both operationally as well as in terms of the message, and they have been very responsive,” Mr. Van Hollen said. J. B. Poersch, executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said the Obama political team had “weathered stormy times,” but was “trying to be helpful.”  Mr. Messina estimates the president will raise or contribute $90 million to Democrats this cycle, including $4.5 million in contributions from Mr. Obama’s own campaign coffers.  “We understand the challenges,” he said, “and we are doing everything we can.”  The challenge at the moment is how to get out the vote in Wisconsin and other battleground states; Mr. Van Hollen calls Tuesday’s rally “a great experiment” for both Mr. Obama and his team.  “We know that first-time voters are difficult to bring out in midterm elections, and this will be a test of the White House’s ability to motivate those voters,” he said. “And the message is simple: Even though Barack Obama’s name is not on the ballot, the future success of his agenda and his presidency is at stake.”  A version of this article appears in print on September 28, 2010, on Page A20 of the New York edition with the headline: Obama Puts Campaigning Back on His Agenda. 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His political value diminished, President Obama is trying to recapture the magic of his campaign with a large get-out-the-vote rally.