Outlining the Keys:
KEY 1 (Party Mandate): After the midterm elections, the incumbent party holds more seats in the U.S. House of Representatives than it did after the previous midterm elections. (FALSE)
KEY 2 (Contest): There is no serious contest for the incumbent-party nomination. (TRUE)
KEY 3 (Incumbency): The incumbent-party candidate is the sitting president. (TRUE)
KEY 4 (Third party): There is no significant third party or independent campaign. (TRUE)
KEY 5 (Short-term economy): The economy is not in recession during the election campaign. (TRUE)
KEY 6 (Long-term economy): Real per-capita economic growth during the term equals or exceeds mean growth during the previous two terms. (FALSE)
KEY 7 (Policy change): The incumbent administration effects major changes in national policy. (TRUE)
KEY 8 (Social unrest): There is no sustained social unrest during the term. (TRUE)
KEY 9 (Scandal): The administration is untainted by major scandal. (TRUE)
KEY 10 (Foreign/military failure): The administration suffers no major failure in foreign or military affairs. (TRUE)
KEY 11 (Foreign/military success): The administration achieves a major success in foreign or military affairs. (FALSE)
KEY 12 (Incumbent charisma): The incumbent-party candidate is charismatic or a national hero. (FALSE)
KEY 13 (Challenger charisma): The challenging-party candidate is not charismatic or a national hero. (TRUE)
Bold items are clearly questionable in application to the 0bama administration.
(4), which would help Obama, not hurt him (for a conservative/libertarian 3rd Party) and
(7) which is plainly NA if the "major" changes go against public opinion