The Big Sweep

Barack Obama secured the presidency with the highest percentage of the national popular vote won by a Democrat since Lyndon Johnson in 1964. He also gained a wide margin of victory in the Electoral College. But his governing majority was secured in the contests for the Senate and House, where Democrats made significant advances. Indeed, the Congressional results confirm that the 2008 election was not just a personal triumph for Obama. It was a Democratic sweep of the sort rarely seen in recent decades.

The scope of the victory may not be known for weeks, as key Senate contests produced results so close that recounts could be required in as many as four states. In Minnesota, for instance, on the day after the election only a few hundred votes--out of 2.9 million--separated Democratic challenger Al Franken from Republican incumbent Norm Coleman in a contentious contest for Paul Wellstone's old seat. At the least, Democrats will move from a narrow 51-to-49 Senate majority to a comfortable 56-to-44 advantage. That means they will no longer have to defer to Democrat-turned-independent Joe Lieberman, who backed John McCain for president. It also means that, although Obama is unlikely to enjoy a filibuster-proof majority of sixty Democratic senators, he will be able to use his bully pulpit to appeal to moderate Republicans--like Maine's Susan Collins, who was re-elected on a promise to work across party lines--for support of needed reforms, a more responsible approach to foreign affairs and economic policies strong enough to meet the challenges posed by a deepening recession.

The new Senate will be marginally more progressive. New Mexico's Tom Udall and his Colorado cousin Mark Udall, who as members of the House both voted against going to war in Iraq, against the Patriot Act and against most of the Bush administration's misguided economic policies, will replace Republicans who were steady Bush backers. North Carolina's Kay Hagan--who highlighted her differences with Republican incumbent Elizabeth Dole's votes in favor of the administration's free-trade agenda--will expand a loose-knit Senate fair-trade caucus that grew substantially when Democrats took control of the chamber two years ago. And New Hampshire's Jeanne Shaheen, while hardly a raging liberal, is likely to be a solid ally for Obama, which John Sununu, the Republican senator she replaces, would never have been.

Subscriber Login

User Name

Password

Subscribe Now!

The only way to read this article and the full contents of each week's issue of The Nation online is by subscribing to the magazine. Subscribe now and read this article -- and every article published since for the past five years -- right now.

There's no obligation -- try The Nation for four weeks free.

• Get The Nation at home (and online!) for 68 cents a week!
• If you like this article, consider making a donation to The Nation.
• Reprint this article. Click here for rights and information.