Forecasting Obama’s Final Two Years

“With the prospect of a Republican takeover of the Senate looming, the White House is quietly mulling potential silver linings of such a dynamic during President Obama’s final two years in office,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“While it’s hard to find anyone in the administration who sees any upside for Mr. Obama if the GOP controls both chambers of Congress-certainly no one is making a public case-one optimistic view of a GOP-controlled Congress is that maybe Mr. Obama would finally be able to cut some deals.”

“The idea is that after November, Republicans will be less inclined to block Mr. Obama because they’ll be looking toward the presidency in 2016 and will want to round out the GOP record to include some planks that have broader national appeal; at the same time, Mr. Obama could have more space to make deals because Democratic leaders won’t be reining him in with their own congressional politics.”