In the short video interview embedded below Scott Rasmussen estimates that in the 2010 elections the GOP will pick up 5 to 8 seats in the Senate and 25 to 30 seats in the House, which would result in the Democrats retaining control of both chambers. Though I think that the carnage inflicted on the Party of Slavery to the State will be even worse than that, he points out the obvious fact that a good economy in October could help the Democrats. As I mentioned recently, some economists do argue that 2010 may be the best economic year of Obama’s presidency and even a temporary upturn could help stem some of the heavy losses expected to be inflicted on the Democrats in November. Conversely, if the jobs picture in October looks more like today the GOP could indeed take the House and get close to taking the Senate. Interestingly, Rasmussen points out almost in passing that the GOP might not want to be in control of Congress heading into 2012. He has a real point.
There is no doubt that wresting control of Congress away from these power-drunk government-loving statists will clearly be a good thing, and no sane person would suggest anything less than a full-bore attempt to win every possible seat. Frankly, the future of the Republic depends on it. But perhaps simply being close enough to a 50/50 split would be a better long-term result for the GOP as long as they can still obstruct the statist agenda of Obama and his minions. While controlling at least one half of Congress would go a long way toward stopping Comrade Obama’s frantic rush toward socialism, let’s not forget that undoing the damage done by this administration is going to require control of the White House. Even a lame duck Obama wields a difficult-to-override veto and there is no chance of gaining a two-thirds majority of both houses in 2010. Our primary goal is to remove the most radical President in US history from office after one term, and being the minority party in 2012 would allow the GOP to adopt a different position as complete outsiders.
Rasmussen makes some other points about Evan Bayh’s retirement and the Scott Brown election that are worth watching as well. But his point about the strategy of remaining the minority party has some real merit. The perfect solution would be a 50/50 split in the Senate, which would give the dumbest man in politics something to do, and perhaps being down only a vote or two in the House would suffice. A second term for the least qualified, most radical President in history would likely be the death knell of American Exceptionalism and may also be the final nail in the statist-built coffin for the American Experiment, a liberty first philosophy in which the freedom-loathing Mr. Obama simply does not believe.
