In thinking about the question,I notice how it highlights how unsure we are about where he’s going to choose to stand. There is an easy route he can take by rubber-stamping what a democratic majority proposes. And then there’s a harder but IMO more fullfilling route (for the country) that he can take by trying to get moderate Republicans on board and disappointing the most liberal of democratic partisans.

Obama has been spending a lot of time talking about how he can get people with strongly variant views into a room, and then work something out. If he is elected and gets this room filled, is he really going to do more than tell the GOP that they’re SOL? Only time will tell.

Notice as well that if we get to that point, the GOP has to decide how they want to respond. Will they be interested in bipartisan efforts that will still lean towards the president and the congressional majority? Or will they embrace a dissident role that ultimately results in the passage of more liberal reforms that they can demonize?

My money, sadly, is on the latter. The President is only one person, and is often stuck playing the role of cat-herder.

re: Dick Morris — I almost began the post by saying, “since Dick Morris wrote it, we can begin by assume there’s giant gaps in logic.” If you read the piece, he actually claime in there that Clinton nearly lost the 1996 election because he drifted so far left in his first two years. I’m sure it would be news to Dole that he nearly won that year. Apparently, when you’re Dick Morris, you can change the meanings of words.

I think the latter scenario is going to be true if he wins. He’s doing this mostly on his own.

“Divided government, although often fraught with gridlock, usually produces more tempered and pragmatic results. I’m not sure John McCain wants to run on “a vote for me is a vote for divided government” but since we can assume Congress will be Democratic we can also assume that a McCain administration will, if anything, be unable to pursue a rightwing agenda with as much ease as Obama could pursue a leftwing one. If the goal is to keep the government as close to the center as possible, a McCain presidency combined with a Democratic Congress could be our best option.” – ASC

Yup. Pretty simple really. Easy to understand. Easy to implement. Just vote divided. You got a real knack Alan, what it takes me an essay to say you can distill into a few sentences.

I think we can now officially declare that Donklephant is ground zero in the Divided Government rEVOLution. When you think about it, the Blog name and tagline are just friggin’ perfect. Justin – You don’t have a problem with that do you?