I don't see the math for Buck and Murray looks like she will hold on.  So, the Senate loses were contained.  Had the Repubs run bettr candidates in NV and DE, it would have been an 8 seat pick up.  The Dems got lucky.

This really pisses me off.  Buying up books?  Well, now I will buy a copy.

will run again?  I can not imagine he would not run for a second term.  It's not common.  And, Obama loves campaigning a lot more than governing. 

I shudder to think he'd run with Bloomberg, but I think you may have something there.

but The Pact is an ubsubstantiated load of crap.  Please stop. 

Further, normally blue ribbon commissions are used by politicians when they want to take talking points away from their opponents to say, here, I'm dealing with this, when they don't intend to do anything at all, which would be the right response to the fake ss crisis.  Obviously, this isn't what Obama's doing for the reasons you cite.  For the record, Clinton's commssion ended up dead locked because it WAS NOT stacked with those who wanted to cut SS, as Obama's plainly is.

That's a really good point.  It also explains while why they see the populist movement has two sides, they still argue the left side is "effectively represented" by Obama and congressional Democrats.  If that were true, why would the left side be angry?  It makes no sense.

Agreed.  Also, "changing the way Washington works" doesn't necessarily have anything to do with being a populist against the bankers.  I took it to mean what I heard Obama talk about so much, being bipartisan and not reliving the fights of the 1960's, which I still see as being fought today.  I never so Obama as a populist.

Further, I never claimed a "small, liberal minority" was the way to win our policy objectives. 

Well, our big, enormous majorities gave us weak financial reform, a health insurance bill that was a boondoggle to the worst actors, and a puny stimulus plan, so maybe sometimes less is more.

I think the last thing Democrats need is more Republicans joining the Party.  That hasn't moved the Party in a healthy direction.  I hope the Democrats have more plans for defeating Rubio in the future(like fixing the economy) then encouraging Democrats to support Republicans in elections.

He won because the economy had recovered and he had a pretty weak opponent for whom he ran a formidable campaign against.

I don't think Obama will squeak by on sympathy.  I do think a Republican Congress actually helps Obama because I don't think voters are really turned on to Republican ideas at this point.  I think they just want to fire the in Party.  Ultimately, I don't think they will want to put the entire federal government in the hands of the Republicans.

is continued high unemployment. 

Dean?  Edwards?  Someone below suggests Feingold.  I didn't even vote for Obama.  I wrote-in Hillary, but I personally wouldn't lift a finger for an Edwards figure, Dean or Feingold.  If this is the sort of challenger Obama would face, I imagine he would prevail.

You're commenting in your own diary?  Unreal.

Not with the novel.  But, I think she is not likely to pick him anyway.  He's too blustery.

These two exude competence.  I can only wish that were the pairing.