Obama’s liberal minority in the Senate

It’s safe to say there’s nothing assured for Senate Democrats. Even
if they manage to keep their majority, the grip on that power will be tenuous at
best. As recent history has shown, anything under 60 spells looming problems for
the party in power in the upper chamber.
 
Yet even if President Obama calls sure-to-be Majority Leader Charles
Schumer (D-N.Y.) on election night to congratulate him for keeping the Senate, there’s
no guarantee he’ll have the votes to continue pushing his extreme liberal agenda.

 
If the left didn’t have the dogma scared out of them enough to pull
them more to the middle this year, then nothing will make that happen. However,
returning senators and even the new ones will think twice before voting “aye” for
any more of Obama’s policies without assurances that the American people are in
agreement.
 
Just ask Sen. Patty Murray. The Washington state Democrat looks as
though she’ll barely eke by her Republican opponent. Yet she’ll be a new person
come January, with a fresh perspective on what exactly the “will of the people”
really is. She may even adopt her own little litmus test — the WWBD rule: “What
Would Ben [Nelson] Do?” 
 
The Nebraska senator is seen by many as the middle-of-the-road moderate
voice of the entire chamber. And many would do well to follow his lead on future
policy stances.
 
But set Murray aside, or even Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), who received
her own scare this year. Should West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin (D) pull out a victory
in the Mountain State, about the only thing he has in common with Obama is the D
behind their names.
 
Manchin was for cap-and-trade before he was against it. And after Tuesday,
he’ll always be against it. There goes Obama’s climate control agenda. Manchin is
also pro-life and, in his own words, very much a different style of Democrat from
what Washington is used to.
 
Seat by seat, the makeup of the 112^th Senate will be far
different in terms of ideology for Obama, should he manage to keep his party in
power. That spells an agenda that will pull back to the middle, whether he says
so or not.

Armstrong Williams is on Sirius/XM Power 169, 7-8 p.m. and 4-5 a.m., Monday through Friday. Become a fan on Facebook at www.facebook.com/arightside, and follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/arightside.