It might have helped if Obama could get a name that even 25% of Americans could recognize. I mean, Jim Leach?? He was a total disaster as Finance Committee chair and went along with the libs on virtually everything for years.
Yep. There's a reason Jim Leach and Lincoln Chafee have former in front of their titles. Leach only got elected in his heavily left-leaning district because he was, well, heavily left-leaning. He was pro-"choice", pro-UN, an environmental loony, pro-gay, voted against tax cuts, voted against military force in Iraq, supported US subjugation to an international court, and as you point out, a disaster on the banking committee. Eventually, democrats figured out that they might as well elect a democrat who had the honesty to actually call himself one, and help gain back the majority.