US midterm elections: Barack Obama’s legacy could be ruined in one day

[F430murci]

Obamas legacy is that he is a liar and as dishonest and incompetent as is possible. A total fraud. His legacy will always be that of a homo muslim scumbag

Gotta admit, this cracked me up!

[samran]

Harry Reid is OUT.

he lost his seat? A big wow if so....

[hawker9000]

Harry Reid is OUT.

he lost his seat? A big wow if so....

I think UG means "OUT" as Senate Majority Leader. He was last elected in 2010 and I think he's announced that he'll be retiring and not running again in 2016. (U.S. senators serve 6-yr terms which are staggered so that one third of the Senate is up for re-election every two years)

Edited November 5, 2014 by hawker9000

[reptile91602]

The democrats suck as much as the republicans but the republicans and democrats have given everything to the rich now and have said f... you to everyone else including the middle class which I think many of youmoved here to thailand just because there is no middle class in the states any longer.

[Jingthing]

It's a TEA party in the old town tonight. Seriously who votes in midterms? Angry white men. HILLARY coming to the rescue!

Sent from my Lenovo S820_ROW using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[JDGRUEN]

Well, I don't know about the assertion that his legacy will be ruined by losing control of the Senate. In my view, his legacy is clear, Obamacare and moving forward LGBT civil rights. I just don't see that legacy being reversed by the republicans winning the Senate. Will they win the Senate? Well, it appears so at this point.

1 in 4 American doctors have backed out of obamacare... if it doesn't collapse of its own weight by 2016 ...it will be gone in 2017 or before ...

obamacare can be morphed out of existence with forced changes inserted in bills that obama will be hard pressed to veto...

[BestBitterPhuket]

Obama received the Nobel Piss Prize, so he must be the best ever!!!

[elgordo38]

Republicans are at an all time low in the polls yet they captured the Senate. The problem is the USA has only a 2 party system. Every 4 years you kick out the incumbents and install the other bad guys. After 4 years you kick them out and return to the status quo. Yes Americans are angry with their politicians as they should be and as the citizens of every country in the world should be but they are unfortunately bottled up by the 2 party system and have no place to vent their anger unless they go to the polls enmass and state NONE OF THE ABOVE. The next presidential election will be interesting. The Democrats have a food stamp mentality and the Republicans want to reduce welfare handouts. Every person gets only one vote. 2016 will be quite a year with another record set on election spending and mudslinging will reach a new level.

[chuckd]

Republicans have 52 of 100 seats, 3 more seats to decide.

Nothing that is filibuster proof though. More gridlock which is a shame, whatever your politics.

Edit in: Forget the question. The rule on cloture change, rammed through by Harry Reid, has already been explained.

Your post is confusing. What do you mean with this sentence?

"Nothing that is filibuster proof though."

Edited November 5, 2014 by chuckd

[JDGRUEN]

To show how strong the Republican Tsunami is ...

Mia Love in Utah makes history, becomes first African American Republican Woman elected to US Congress.

They are learning that the Liberal Democrat Plantation owners have been abusing them.

[NeverSure]

Well then, even if independents decide to caucus with the "winners", they won't get to 60 I don't think. They'll have to get at least some dems voting with them to overcome filibustering on other matters. But at least this puts an end to Harry Reid's unilateral DOA declarations on everything coming over from the House. And some dems might actually decide it's time to jump OFF the Obama bandwagon for a change, esp. ones up for re-election in 2016 which will be Obamaless.

Today it is popular to not be a Democrat. Many Democrats didn't want Obama's endorsement much less have him come and campaIgn for them.

With this 2 year lame duck session coming up I fully expect a few Democrats to vote with Republicans. That's in addition to the few Democrats from the South who are moderate to conservative anyway.

Now that Reid and Obama are non-issues, I think some Democrats will change their ways just as Clinton did when he was suddenly faced with a Republican Congress.

[samran]

Republicans have 52 of 100 seats, 3 more seats to decide.

Nothing that is filibuster proof though. More gridlock which is a shame, whatever your politics.

Your post is confusing. What do you mean with this sentence?

"Nothing that is filibuster proof though."

just that the dems can filibuster and the GOP don't have 60 votes to beat it (though some have shown the threshold has been lowered in some cases).

ie...they can still effectively block stuff in the senate.

[hawker9000]

It's a TEA party in the old town tonight. Seriously who votes in midterms? Angry white men. HILLARY coming to the rescue!

Sent from my Lenovo S820_ROW using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

Too lazy to get off your butt and go vote, eh? And that's your excuse? You're "not" an "angry white man". (Apparently something of a racist, and not a believer in democracy either...) No? Just a pathologically petulant malcontent? OK. Go with that.

Oh yeah - now I remember. You were one of the mad gloaters back in 2012 predicting the death of the Republican party.

Nice recovery. Yeah, so dead. You sure called that one. I'll bet the networks are just beating down your door, begging for your political insights & predictions.

(Keep up the average work!)

[thailiketoo]

The democrats suck as much as the republicans but the republicans and democrats have given everything to the rich now and have said f... you to everyone else including the middle class which I think many of youmoved here to thailand just because there is no middle class in the states any longer.

It is clear that you know nothing about America. 46% of Americans are middle class. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affluence_in_the_United_States

Why comment about an election that you know nothing about?

[Jingthing]

The democrats suck as much as the republicans but the republicans and democrats have given everything to the rich now and have said f... you to everyone else including the middle class which I think many of youmoved here to thailand just because there is no middle class in the states any longer.

It is clear that you know nothing about America. 46% of Americans are middle class. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affluence_in_the_United_States

Why comment about an election that you know nothing about?

Middle class in the USA ain't what it used to be!

[maidee]

legacy ? he was just a blackish version of the bush-es

same empty promisses

[JDGRUEN]

For those Americans who have tried to forget and for those others who don't know how the American Federal Legislative system works (and often does not work)...

Is that the U.S. House of Representatives initiates all budget bills - down to the line item. They have the power to add in or take out funding for significant Federal programs such as obamacare, sending troops, jet fighters hither and yon without Congressional approval, etc. Also such Federal Department that refuse to comply with subpoenas such as the IRS Internal Revenue Service emails, or for elements of the EPA - Environmental 'Protection' Agency that have exceeded statutory bounds and are persecuting business and individuals, and for the CDC and the Department of State and Homeland Security for not having a coherent program for protecting Americans from Ebola, etc., etc., etc, I could list a hundred examples... With a consensus in the House and a majority vote any and all the programs can have their funding cut, entire sections, whole departments, funded programs that have run amok, can be dismantled by the budgeting system.

But the House has to have concurrence with a majority vote of the Senate. With Democrat Harry Reid at the helm of the Senate nothing happened period - nearly every House bill died in the Senate - regardless of its worthiness.

But it has all changed now...

With a combined budget bill and other bills containing budget items ... programs, actions, directions, that the Federal Government has undertaken and refuses to change or refuses to undertake other programs and actions... even in light of significant opposition - then their budgets are cut. Whole Federal Departments can be dismantled such as the Department of Education for pushing the Common Core curriculum which is nothing less than indoctrination ... The Department of Education could have most or all of it budget cut theoretically.

Such Bills that the House and Senate deem necessary can and likely will be inserted in much larger budget bills and other legislation - passed and taken to obama to sign into law. obama will try to refuse it and veto them .. But he will only be successful just so many times ... sooner or later he has to hold his nose and sign them... even when they may partially defund his pet monstrosity obamacare..

It is called too bad - so sad... running roughshod over America and Americans will only go on so long and so far.

And if as he promises - obama plans to use unconstitutional Executive Fiat to grant Amnesty to millions of illegal aliens -- and he may do this very soon... And if he does there will be a total uproar and the New Republican Senate and the House will be pushed to file for Impeachment... That is a power of the newly aligned Federal Legislature under Republican Control.

[thailiketoo]

It's a TEA party in the old town tonight. Seriously who votes in midterms? Angry white men. HILLARY coming to the rescue!

Sent from my Lenovo S820_ROW using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

The GOP could actually gain an impressive 14 to 18 House seats, giving Republicans their largest majority since 1946.

Governors' races, Republicans earning re-election in Florida, Wisconsin and Kansas and driving dems crazy by winning governorships in blue Maryland and Massachusetts.

The most painful for Obama was Illinois, where Republican Bruce Rauner ousted Democrat Pat Quinn in the president's home state.

Who votes in mid term elections. A lot of angry men and women in America.

US midterm elections live: Early voter turnout set to surpass 2010 record

[thailiketoo]

The democrats suck as much as the republicans but the republicans and democrats have given everything to the rich now and have said f... you to everyone else including the middle class which I think many of youmoved here to thailand just because there is no middle class in the states any longer.

It is clear that you know nothing about America. 46% of Americans are middle class. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affluence_in_the_United_States

Why comment about an election that you know nothing about?

Middle class in the USA ain't what it used to be!

I would agree with your statement but that's a long way from the above poster who stated that there is no middle class in America.

[uptheos]

It's a TEA party in the old town tonight. Seriously who votes in midterms? Angry white men. HILLARY coming to the rescue!

Sent from my Lenovo S820_ROW using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

The GOP could actually gain an impressive 14 to 18 House seats, giving Republicans their largest majority since 1946.

Governors' races, Republicans earning re-election in Florida, Wisconsin and Kansas and driving dems crazy by winning governorships in blue Maryland and Massachusetts.

The most painful for Obama was Illinois, where Republican Bruce Rauner ousted Democrat Pat Quinn in the president's home state.

Who votes in mid term elections. A lot of angry men and women in America.

US midterm elections live: Early voter turnout set to surpass 2010 record

I would say the majority of those who say no one votes in the mid terms, probably did, but I can understand their not wanting to admit it after such a humiliation.

[hawker9000]

For those Americans who have tried to forget and for those others who don't know how the American Federal Legislative system works (and often does not work)...

Is that the U.S. House of Representatives initiates all budget bills - down to the line item. They have the power to add in or take out funding for significant Federal programs such as obamacare, sending troops, jet fighters hither and yon without Congressional approval, etc. Also such Federal Department that refuse to comply with subpoenas such as the IRS Internal Revenue Service emails, or for elements of the EPA - Environmental 'Protection' Agency that have exceeded statutory bounds and are persecuting business and individuals, and for the CDC and the Department of State and Homeland Security for not having a coherent program for protecting Americans from Ebola, etc., etc., etc, I could list a hundred examples... With a consensus in the House and a majority vote any and all the programs can have their funding cut, entire sections, whole departments, funded programs that have run amok, can be dismantled by the budgeting system.

But the House has to have concurrence with a majority vote of the Senate. With Democrat Harry Reid at the helm of the Senate nothing happened period - nearly every House bill died in the Senate - regardless of its worthiness.

But it has all changed now...

With a combined budget bill and other bills containing budget items ... programs, actions, directions, that the Federal Government has undertaken and refuses to change or refuses to undertake other programs and actions... even in light of significant opposition - then their budgets are cut. Whole Federal Departments can be dismantled such as the Department of Education for pushing the Common Core curriculum which is nothing less than indoctrination ... The Department of Education could have most or all of it budget cut theoretically.

Such Bills that the House and Senate deem necessary can and likely will be inserted in much larger budget bills and other legislation - passed and taken to obama to sign into law. obama will try to refuse it and veto them .. But he will only be successful just so many times ... sooner or later he has to hold his nose and sign them... even when they may partially defund his pet monstrosity obamacare..

It is called too bad - so sad... running roughshod over America and Americans will only go on so long and so far.

And if as he promises - obama plans to use unconstitutional Executive Fiat to grant Amnesty to millions of illegal aliens -- and he may do this very soon... And if he does there will be a total uproar and the New Republican Senate and the House will be pushed to file for Impeachment... That is a power of the newly aligned Federal Legislature under Republican Control.

Nah - impeachment, even over a blanket amnesty, ain't gonna' happen. Republicans don't have the backbone for it, and maybe just as well. It'd unite the left as nothing else possibly could. 95% plus of blacks in the U.S. wouldn't vote Republican again for a hundred years. However, he can only grant an amnesty that lasts through the end of his term. The next president could as easily undo it as Obama did it. Most Americans are against amnesty. Hillary already has an uphill battle coming in 2016 - having to grapple with the public uproar over amnesty, not to mention the executive overreach involved in perpetrating it, wouldn't make her electoral campaign any easier. If Obama pulls the trigger on that, and I actually think he's more than self-absorbed enough to do it, he'll be throwing a huge monkey wrench into the 2016 elections for the Democratic Party. And I think he could care less.

I'm wondering what democrats in the Senate must've threatened him with to get him to not do it back in August when he said he would. But now that Election Day is come & gone, and he well knows he's being well & truly, if silently, blamed & reviled within his own party from coast to coast, he could give a flying fark. I agree - he could do this very soon. No advantage for him at all to waiting.

Edited November 5, 2014 by hawker9000

[chuckd]

Republicans have 52 of 100 seats, 3 more seats to decide.

Nothing that is filibuster proof though. More gridlock which is a shame, whatever your politics.

Your post is confusing. What do you mean with this sentence?

"Nothing that is filibuster proof though."

just that the dems can filibuster and the GOP don't have 60 votes to beat it (though some have shown the threshold has been lowered in some cases).

ie...they can still effectively block stuff in the senate.

The Republicans will have control of the Senate schedule as of 4 January 2015. Why would they filibuster their own bills?

The Democrats fall into that the need-for-filibuster category for at least the next two years. Let's see how THAT works out.

[Jingthing]

The results are worse than I thought they would be, but remember who votes in a presidential year is VERY DIFFERENT than who votes in midterm years. Hillary is good to go!
TO THE WHITEHOUSE!

[chuckd]

Republicans have 52 of 100 seats, 3 more seats to decide.

Nothing that is filibuster proof though. More gridlock which is a shame, whatever your politics.

Your post is confusing. What do you mean with this sentence?

"Nothing that is filibuster proof though."

just that the dems can filibuster and the GOP don't have 60 votes to beat it (though some have shown the threshold has been lowered in some cases).

ie...they can still effectively block stuff in the senate.

The Republicans will have control of the Senate schedule as of 4 January 2015. Why would they filibuster their own bills?

The Democrats fall into that the need-for-filibuster category for at least the next two years. Let's see how THAT works out.

That's what I meant. The dems nneed it.

I've always scratched my head at the filibuster. I understand the theoretical reason for it - so that moderate policy is developed by all parties so it gets passed.

But I think the rule, especially in politics, is inherently undemocratic and only serves as an incentive for the opposition to block, not develop good policy.

You get 51 votes. You win the other guy loses.

At least policy gets made and government works. No gridlock.

You don't like what they other guy did? Get 51% the next election and over turn it, if you can.

Yet, again, you miss the mark. The US is NOT a democracy. It is a Constitutional Republic.

There is a difference.

[metisdead]

A post which can be construed as rumor mongering has been removed as well as the replies. Another post with messed up quotes has been removed.

[uptheos]

The results are worse than I thought they would be, but remember who votes in a presidential year is VERY DIFFERENT than who votes in midterm years. Hillary is good to go!

TO THE WHITEHOUSE!

Why not? The Whitehouse could certainly use someone with balls.

[chuckd]

The results are worse than I thought they would be, but remember who votes in a presidential year is VERY DIFFERENT than who votes in midterm years. Hillary is good to go!

TO THE WHITEHOUSE!

I just bookmarked this post. Hope I'm still alive in two years to point it out to you...if appropriate.

[Jingthing]

The results are worse than I thought they would be, but remember who votes in a presidential year is VERY DIFFERENT than who votes in midterm years. Hillary is good to go!

TO THE WHITEHOUSE!

I just bookmarked this post. Hope I'm still alive in two years to point it out to you...if appropriate.

I am confident I am right. May the best lady win!

[samran]

Republicans have 52 of 100 seats, 3 more seats to decide.

Nothing that is filibuster proof though. More gridlock which is a shame, whatever your politics.

Your post is confusing. What do you mean with this sentence?

"Nothing that is filibuster proof though."

just that the dems can filibuster and the GOP don't have 60 votes to beat it (though some have shown the threshold has been lowered in some cases).

ie...they can still effectively block stuff in the senate.

The Republicans will have control of the Senate schedule as of 4 January 2015. Why would they filibuster their own bills?

The Democrats fall into that the need-for-filibuster category for at least the next two years. Let's see how THAT works out.

That's what I meant. The dems nneed it.

I've always scratched my head at the filibuster. I understand the theoretical reason for it - so that moderate policy is developed by all parties so it gets passed.

But I think the rule, especially in politics, is inherently undemocratic and only serves as an incentive for the opposition to block, not develop good policy.

You get 51 votes. You win the other guy loses.

At least policy gets made and government works. No gridlock.

You don't like what they other guy did? Get 51% the next election and over turn it, if you can.

Yet, again, you miss the mark. The US is NOT a democracy. It is a Constitutional Republic.

There is a difference.

That the U.S. is not a democracy will be surprise to a great many of your fellow citizens. You spend half your time trying to spread it around the world!

Anyway, I digress....

Sounds like you don't think representative government is all that much needed?

[hawker9000]

The Republicans will have control of the Senate schedule as of 4 January 2015. Why would they filibuster their own bills?

The Democrats fall into that the need-for-filibuster category for at least the next two years. Let's see how THAT works out.

The dems (not only Senate dems, but House dems & state office dems as well) have just been spanked - and make no mistake; it was a real spanking - for their unquestioning support of the Obama agenda despite their very best efforts to distance themselves from it. I'm not sure all of them are of a mind to keep marching alongside the Obama panzer, which is now coughing & sputtering rather badly. 'Especially the ones up for re-election themselves in 2016, and especially some southern democrats who actually answer to more moderate constituencies. Republicans will be trying to bring some dems over to their side for important, high public visibility, cloture votes, and I think some dems may actually be receptive. Democratic party discipline in the Senate ain't gonna' be what's it's been, and private calls from the White House might just start getting lip service ('don't even wanna' think about what calls from Harry Reid's office will be getting...lol...there may even be some lingering scores to be settled there). Obama doesn't have as much to bargain with within his own party as he used to...

Maybe Biden will finally shut up now. (I'll bet he was actually having wet dreams of being able to sweep majestically into a deadlocked 50-50 Senate, going where no VP has ever gone before, to cast an avalanche of deciding votes. But all such fond hopes have just been ingloriously dashed...)