President Mr. Barack Obama is back in campaign trail and can he create the magic similar to his presidential campaign? He is appearing in television advertisements in New Jersey this week on behalf of Governor Jon S. Corzine, the embattled Democrat struggling to win a second term. And he campaigned on Thursday evening alongside R. Creigh Deeds, the candidate for governor fighting to keep Virginia in the Democratic column.

So how the results of these elections will decide Obama’s benchmarks and achievements? The New Jersey and Virginia races for governor are the only big-ticket political contests for 2009. And fairly or not Mr. Obama’s advisers are not alone in arguing that the consequence of these races does not extend beyond the boundaries of either state, actually the contests are being held up as an early gauge of how Mr. Obama is doing and a forecaster of how Democrats might charge in next year’s Congressional campaigns.

This is posing complications for the White House, as it dispatches Mr. Obama to help. Early polls show Republicans have staked out leads in the two states: Robert F. McDonnell, the former Republican attorney general, over Mr. Deeds to fill the seat being vacated by Tim Kaine, Democrat of Virginia, and Christopher J. Christie, a Republican former prosecutor, over Mr. Corzine in New Jersey.

Officials in both parties say that in the end, the races will be driven by local forces and concerns and note that historically, state midterm elections have proved to be poor prognosticators about future elections. The outcomes could affect party fund-raising, candidate recruitment and the confidence level of both parties.

“In this case, perception is reality,” said Nick Ayres, the executive director of the Republican Governors Association. His counterpart at the Democratic Governors Association, Nathan Daschle, said, “No matter what happens in either case, we’ll all probably read too much into them.”

The ability of Democrats to win the race for governor there this fall could be evidence of whether Mr. Obama’s victory last year was part of a fundamental reshaping of the political map. Mr. Obama took notice of the Democrats’ situation in Virginia as he appeared with Mr. Deeds at a fund-raiser in McLean on Thursday evening.

“Let’s be honest: This is going to be a tough race,” he told the crowd. While the state was “moving in the right direction, it’s still a purple state.”

And it is increasingly looking like the Virginia race could be cast as a verdict on Mr. Obama as well. Sensing that Mr. Obama’s popularity is ebbing and those voters are turning against him on issues like health care; Republicans are signaling that they want to frame the Virginia race in part as a referendum on Mr. Obama. Mr. McDonnell has been attacking his policies on spending and health care, putting Mr. Deeds in a position that would have seemed unimaginable four months ago: having to distance himself from the president.

“The odd feature here now is just how much the climate has changed in a year,” said Robert D. Holsworth, a professor of political science at Virginia Commonwealth University. “It’s the Republicans — Bob McDonnell — who are trying to nationalize the election by attempting to link Creigh Deeds with the national policies of the Democratic Party.”

Mr. President, watch out! Your policies and programs can also shape fate of many governors and Democrats!