As members of Congress limp back to their home districts and the president heads for summer vacation on the Vineyard, still bruised from the debt ceiling showdown, Vineyard Democrats turn their eyes to the next fight: the 2012 election. On the expected day of Mr. Obama’s arrival, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee will also travel to the Island to headline an evening of speakers and performers at a fundraiser at the Union Chapel in Oak Bluffs.

“I’m beyond excited to come to the Vineyard,” Florida Cong. Debbie Wasserman Schultz told the Gazette in a telephone interview Wednesday. “When my husband and I first came we just absolutely loved it. We went there several times before we had kids; it’s beautiful. We’ve looked forward to going back ever since.”

Mrs. Wasserman Schultz will join Geraldine Brooks, Greg Craig, Alan Dershowitz, Ken Edelin, Geoffrey Fletcher, Charles Ogletree, Richard North Patterson, Alexandra Styron, Rose Styron and Kate Taylor on August 18 for an evening of original performances and readings dedicated to the president titled Voices for Obama. Afterward, the fundraiser moves to the home of Ron and Judy Davenport where organizers hope to achieve a measure of symmetry with the president’s first campaign. The Davenports hosted one of the earliest fundraisers for Mr. Obama in 2007.

“The events themselves are really nice . . . they include an opportunity to hear a wide variety of presenters who will each use their cultural or creative talent to express something about the president,” Mrs. Wasserman Schultz said.

She was tapped for the top Democratic post job in April and has served as an exuberant and feisty foil to President Obama’s professorial mien — a ubiquitous presence on political talk shows vigorously defending the president’s record.

“It’s been pretty intense,” she said of her newfound role as party spokesman. “It was obviously an incredible privilege to be asked by the president to take on a challenge like chairing the DNC and especially to have his back and help bring him across the finish line in the next election.”

As she spoke, the outlines of the young 2012 campaign message came into focus. If the winning themes of the 2008 campaign were hope and change, next year’s Democratic offensive will feature three simple buzzwords.

“Jobs, jobs and jobs,” Mrs. Wasserman Schultz said, laughing. “We will be focusing like a laser on creating jobs and continuing to get this economy turned around because although we’ve come a long way since President Obama first took office, we recognize that we need to pick up the pace.”

She said centerpieces of the effort should include the establishment of a national infrastructure bank — championed by Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry — the reform of the country’s antiquated patent laws and the extension of middle-class tax cuts signed into law by Mr. Obama in 2009.

For her own part, Mrs. Wasserman Schultz is focusing like a laser on honing a message that pits the Democratic party against a GOP that increasingly draws its power from the extreme right.

“We really stand at a crossroads,” she said. “There’s such a stark contrast that voters will have to choose between leading up to this election. They can go in the direction of the Republicans who are controlled by, and slavishly responsive to, the Tea Party and who essentially caused the gridlock that we found ourselves in leading up to the debt ceiling, or we can continue in the direction that President Obama’s been taking us, where, before he took office we were bleeding 750,000 jobs a month and now we’ve had 17 straight months of private sector job growth. That’s the kind of thing I’ve had the opportunity to talk to Americans about and I’ve really enjoyed it.”

Mrs. Wasserman Schultz does not deny that this has been a summer of discontent for disheartened Democrats.

But despite a period of unprecedented partisan rancor, she said cooperation across the aisle is a simple matter of choice.

“I can easily give you a hopeful message,” she said. “Even though I’m the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, I fervently support working with our colleagues on the other side to reach a compromise that would help us create jobs and get the economy turned around. That’s all of our responsibility. We’re ready to do that, we’ve been ready.”

Voices for Obama is on Thursday, August 18. Doors open at 5 p.m.; the event begins at 6 p.m. Tickets for the Union Chapel event are $100. Tickets for the dinner at the Davenports are $500. For tickets and information contact Ryan Fleury at 1-207-242-7086.