The Democratic Congress had best start acting like winners.

[OHdem10]

The House and Senate gained enough seats to declare a Mandate.
According to Polls Obama has the highest favorables--better than
Clinton--better than Regan.

This should be ample stuff to stiffen some spines up there.

Yes I know Obama has to tred lightly and this is most appropriate.
He is not yet President.


This does not mean the House and Senate will or must go strutting
off the left en masse.

However, it does mean they are being looked to for answers. These
answers should be surefooted and confident-----Not Not Not"We do
not have enough Republican votes".

Yes, work hard to try to get GOP on board. If the policy is good
just having Democrat votes does not make it bad.

When Regan came in, he declared a mandate and did just what he darned
pleased pushing a RW (not centrist) agenda.
GWB barely winning declared a mandate and went to theright of Atilla
the Hun. The GOP backed him and they did not care one whit about
Democratic Votes.

The Country elected Democrats to make change not to appease the
Conservative Right. Decide what you believe is correct and stiffen
those spines.

I cringed yesterday when the commentary was "Chris Dodd says he does
not know what will happen with Auto Bailout --does not have enough
Republican Votes." One commentator referred to Democrats as weasles.

By now the Democratic Party should know where they stand on the bailout
--either support it or call it off. You are in charge.

[kurt_cagle]

1. Lame Duck Sessions

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.