Reply #1: Lame Duck Sessions [View All]

[kurt_cagle]

While the Democrats won huge in the last election, the Congress that is currently in session is the old one, as is the president, and Dodd was echoing the sentiment of that Congress.

The Dems are waiting for Obama and the new session, and Obama is, at least for the moment, constrained in what he can do or say until he is actually confirmed on Jan. 20th. At the moment the (right-leaning) punditocracy is trying to spin everything to favor the right, trying to get Obama to pick a rightward leaning cabinet and trying to scare the Dems into "towing the line" because that's all they have. Several of the standard bearers for the GOP in Congress aren't coming back, and the party is in disarray.

My expectation is that once Obama is in office, he will get Congress to follow his lead (unlike Clinton). He'll start out cautiously because he is a meticulous person, mandate or no, but I doubt seriously that he'll have much problem once he is sworn in.