The American Thread of Mid-Term Elections (2010)

[Mr Khan]

rocketpig said:

leatherhat said:

These people have no interest in compromise. The republicans have already stated that their main goal is turn Obama into a lame duck Pres who doesn't get any more terms. And with their new seats and the power of the fillibuster they can stop any thing the dems try to do. And the dems are not going to play nice with people so openly hostile towards them. Its a bad situation. 

The same things were said about Clinton in 94. After a time, everyone realized they needed to play nice to get re-elected. The freshmen GOP will come in like barnstormers but they'll calm after a bit when they realize their next election date is just around the corner and nothing has been accomplished.

Deliberate obstructionism, when you're not the minority to a supermajority, can work, or not. It's like Russian Roulette with 3 bullets in a six shooter, because it all depends on whether the public blames you for obstructing (in this case, if the Republicans go through with an effort to just paralyze and destroy Obama, if they then get blamed for whatever problems the country has in 2012, or they could effectively destroy him as the only roadblock to a Republican agenda, it's a fifty fifty shot)

As rocketpig said, it's politically advantageous for everyone to play nice with each other, but that secures both Obama and the new Congress.