YOU HAD TO KNOW IT WAS COMING . . . AND IT DID

So, the Republicans have taken control of the Senate . . . and in a big way.  Talking heads now will speculate about what that means, blow lots of hot air (and even more bullshit), and in the end will say little of importance.  You had to know it was coming, but what will it change?  Not much.  Gridlock will still be the order of the day with Congress passing measures the President will veto.  Forget about Congressional override of the vetoes 'cause that's not likely to happen.  The shoe is now on the other foot with Democrats having to become an obstructionist party, something the Republicans are very good at.  Democrats are less proficient at obstruction, but they'll likely toe the line and do fairly well at it.  What changes come about will be minor.

Second term presidents are often faced with the same thing now facing Obama. In many ways, he's been facing it all along . . . the frustration of trying to lead his own divided party and at the same time deal with a right wing dominated Republican party.  We'll never know if he would've made a good President; all we know at this point is that he hasn't been.  The divisions won't end with this Republican victory in Senate races, might even grow more intense.  If you are a Republican, the victory gives you some cause to feel confident that you can be even more of a thorn in Obama's side, and in the side of Democrats who are now in the scramble mode.  They just took a serious ass-kicking, so now it's time to do some self evaluation . . . and that will cause some real squabbles within their ranks.  If they don't make some adjustments, they're looking at another loss in the 2016 elections.

This could be a good thing for Democrats in the long run.  They need to change, and that's a fact.  They need to forget the Clintons and Bidens and any other old school candidates and start looking for people who can deal with a rejuvenated Republican party.  I don't see anybody in their ranks at the moment who can pull that off other than Brian Schweitzer, former governor of Montana.  He's a moderate to right kind of Democrat, a practical man who is often a critic of his own party.  He can run against a Republican candidate and at the same time run against Obama, and that's what the next election is going to come down to.  Obama has been disastrous to Democrats, and that should be obvious by now.  Since Schweitzer has been a critic all along, he's tailor made as a candidate who can run for office promising change . . . and I think that's what voters are going to want.  The answer to our problems isn't going to the right, to the hard line Republicans.  They never have been able to run government.  But voters need a choice other than either the left leaning Democrats or the right leaning Republicans.  We need someone in the middle because that's where most reasonable thought comes from . . . and never from the extremes.