President Barack Obama has returned to the campaign trail. He is appearing in television advertisements in New Jersey this week on behalf of Gov. Jon Corzine, the embattled Democrat struggling to win a second term. And he campaigned on Thursday evening alongside R. Creigh Deeds, the gubernatorial nominee fighting to keep Virginia in the Democratic column. These two races are the only big-ticket political contests for 2009. And fairly or no, they are being held up as an early measure of how Obama is doing and a predictor of how Democrats might fare in next year's congressional campaigns. This is posing complications for the White House, as it dispatches Obama to help. Early polls show that Republicans have staked out leads in the two states: Robert F. McDonnell, the former Republican attorney general, over Creeds to fill the seat being vacated by Gov. Tim Kaine, a Democrat, in Virginia, and Christopher J. Christie, a Republican former prosecutor, over 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. Still, the confluence of these two races -- coming in the year after Obama's election and at a time when Democrats are trying to consolidate the gains they have made over the past two election cycles -- could prove the exception. The outcomes could affect party fundraising, candidate recruitment and the confidence level of both parties. Virginia and New Jersey are two very different states that could offer different perspectives about the direction of politics nationwide. If the country is moving in a Democratic direction, Virginia is on the leading edge of that shift. Obama was the first Democratic presidential nominee to carry Virginia since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964. The ability of Democrats to win the gubernatorial race there this fall could be evidence of whether Obama's victory last year was part of a fundamental reshaping of the political map. New Jersey may not offer as much of a national lesson as Virginia, unless the economy fails to show signs of improvement and Obama cannot get his health care proposal through Congress. The New Jersey race is more a contest about an unpopular incumbent, Corzine, besieged with questions about everything from a corruption investigation to property taxes. 