If the house alone can prevent the President from appointing radicals to the federal bench, let me know. A closer Senate was the brass ring and this election proved that the entrenched corruption in states that we need to flip to win in 2012 can be the deciding factor. I worked for the democrats in the 90’s and they will take this divisive strategy into 2012 because all they have to do is hold serve.
We won loads of seats in the house but we all don’t want another 1996. If the senate was closer, it would have meant more to the white house because they value the senate more than the voice of the individual districts. This man more than any president before him has shown he does not care what the people think.
A Republican house will be an annoyance to the President but not much of an impediment.
It requires a solid 40 Senators to block appointments and we now have that. Previously we didn’t. The White House can’ spend a dime without getting it from the House of Representatives, and Obama will never get that without paying heavily. We are not going to see 1996 because Bob Dole isn’t running.
In any case the point of my post was about the size of the election victory, not what are prospects are for the future, which is highly unknowable.