Reply #92: Right now it's looking better for us IMHO

[Proud Liberal Dem]

than it was, say, before HCR passed (and relatively early in the year- giving some of the anger and teeth-gnashing over it some time to die down). We're going to lose some seats no doubt about it but I don't believe that it will be a 1994-esque bloodbath and even if we take a more severe pounding (although still not a GOP "blowout" and/or takeover like in 1994) in 2010 it will likely only be temporary setback because it will likely be more of a result of low Democratic voter turnout rather than a renewal of love/appreciation for the Republican Party and the "teabaggers" and once people (again) see the kind of nutbars the Republican Party produces and what they want to do, the Dems will be able to take political advantage of their extremism and people will (hopefully) vote most of the worst of the lot out in 2012, which will be a higher turnout election and, at the moment, I don't see a Republican being elected POTUS in 2012 without MASSIVE discontent with President Obama (which I don't see happening at the moment). :shrug:

So, to sum it up, moderate losses but no "bloodbath" like in 1994 and no Republican control of either Houses (there's just too many seats they would have to win/defend for it to happen and some previously "safe" Republicans are facing primary challenges from "teabaggers", weaker candidates will be running against potentially vulnerable Dems, RNC is facing scandal and shortful of funds). In short, the "force" is not as strong with the GOP this year as it was in 1994. This COULD change, of course, but I'm not exactly sure how. President Obama and his team, whatever you might think of them, are smart and are fully aware of what happened in 1994 and not likely to repeat our mistakes then.