2012 Election Center: The Main Event - Obama Wins

[noname2200]

fordy said:

Who said that Republicans need a house majority to be obstructionist? Check out the record number of Filibusters used by Republicans when the Democrats are in power. They didn't want to pass policy. They wanted to stall the process to use as ammunition against the Democrats.

Now that Obama is on his last term, he has nothing to lose. Republicans on the other hand get reviewed in 2014, so they have the choice of sticking with the lunatic Tea Party, or looking to be bipartisan. It will be interesting to see what they decide to do to prevent them from losing the house in 2 years.

Hmm, true, although I'd argue that having control of the branch of the legislature which originates spending bills is a much longer lever than merely filibustering in the Senate.

As for your second paragraph, I'm curious to hear what folks think will happen. Personally, I expect the hard-liners to double down, not moderate. No idea what the rest of the party intends, although they've been happy to go along with the hard-liners for quite some time now.