While I was watching CNN Situation Room the other day I stumbled on a heartwarming realisation: even if McCain is elected on November 4th, he will face a Democratic majority in both the House and Senate! Clearly this is only good news if you're a Democrat, but I happen to be one and I don't think I'm alone in my leanings.
At this point in the election, Barack Obama is up 8 points nationwide to McCain and Republican candidates across the nation are facing tough local races. The House races may result in more Democratic seats. Notably, in South Florida Joe Garcia has a decent chance to take over the traditionally Republican seat, although it is a statistical tie at the moment. There are 35 seats at stake in the Senate, with Republicans controlling 23 and Democrats, 12. Democrats are expected to win at least four more seats. In North Carolina the incumbent Representative Elizabeth Dole is down several points and will most likely lose if things stay the same. Mississippi, Senator Roger Wicker is up against former Governor Musgrove and may well have to fight to the finish. Other races in Alaska, with Ted Stevens' recent indictment, Colorado, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oregon, and Virginia may possibly lead to Democratic victory.
The only way McCain can overcome this burden of a Democratic majority is to continue the Bush tradition of vetoing everything that lands on your desk. However, that strategy may also be out of bounds for McCain if the House has a two-thirds majority. With that majority, any Presidential veto could be overturned. If such were to happen, John McCain would look like the epitome of lame duck President - perhaps even more so than Bush does now. Yet knowing that this latter possibility is indeed a possibility, it would seem very unlikely that John McCain will win on Tuesday, which is very heartening.
Good News If McCain is Elected
By Frank America - Posted on November 2nd, 2008
Even though I'm a Republican, I'd almost prefer Congress to remain Democratic if McCain were to win the Presidency. We've seen the disasters that result from one party controlling Washington during the first six years of Bush's presidency.
The best administrations are governments which are split: Clinton was great because he was tempered by the Republican controlled Congress. When one party controls all of Washington, bad things happen, since there is nobody to keep them in check and ensure a "middle road" is taken. Obama seems like a pretty good candidate, but I'd never vote for him knowing he'd have free reign with a Democratic Congress.
Not to defend Bush, but vetoing is hardly a "tradition" of his. According to this list, he's only had 12 vetoes in his eight years (sorry for citing Wikipedia, the only other website I found with this information was out-of-date). To put Bush's "veto tradition" into perspective, consider that Clinton had 37, Reagan 78, and FDR 635!