Bad news for the Democrats?

With 37 seats in the Senate up for election this year, the Democratic majority may be in jeopardy, if certain possibilities were to occur.

There are two seats where the Democrats don't, almost for sure, have the seats secured due to retirements: North Dakota and Delaware. In Delaware, Attorney General Beau Biden has chosen to not run for his father's former seat, which means that the popular Republican Mike Castle has a very good chance at election. In North Dakota, Democrat Byron Dorgan's retirement has taken away the Dem's best chance at reelection, because the state has been tending towards the red in the past few years.

The second possibilty is that certain incumbents' chances at reelection are diminishing. These seats include Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader, D-Nev., Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., Ken Salazar, D-Co., and President Obama's seat in Illinois. Reid's approval ratings are approximately 30%, and his opponents, a Miss-America runner-up and a son of a basketball coach notorious for scandals, are faring much better in the polls. Three surveys in two weeks have shown Lincoln losing to four other candidates in her run for a third term. In Illinois, the Democratic candidate, Alexis Giannoulias, has been portrayed in a corrupt way, and with the public's outrage with the impeachment of their governor, being portrayed as such could really hurt Giannoulias' chances. In Colorado, Michael Bennet, who took Salazar's seat, is having trouble gaining recognition among his voters.

I really doubt that the Democrats will lose their majority, because for that to happen, the perfect scenarios will have to favor the Republicans, and while it is possible that they will gain some seats, it is not very probable that every single event will happen to favor the Republicans.

www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1958995,00.html?cnn=yes

Ability to filibuster

Senate-elect Scott Brown, R-Mass., was expected to be sworn in today in Washington, D.C., after Massachusets governor Deval Patrick signed the certificate of election at 9:30, ET. Brown was expected to take his office the 11th of February, but was eager to push the date up due to a couple very important votes that are going to take place before next Thursday. These votes include approval of two people nominated by President Obama, one to the National Labor Relations Board and one to the General Services Administration.

The addition of Scott Brown to the Senate was, in the first place, an interesting vote by Massachusets, and secondly, a bad omen for Obama and his fellow Democrats. Massachusets, typically being a blue state, went red for the first time in decades (according to Mr. Coit, and I'll just trust him on this). This should warn the Democrats that public opinion towards the healthcare bill (Brown's campaign was built almost solely on his promise to block the bill) may be leaning towards the negative, enough for extremely liberal Massachusets to vote in a Republican senator. Brown being in the Senate will also give the Republicans the power to filibuster to block the efforts of Obama and the Democrats to pass legislature.