Here and There

On some of my bike rides to and from work recently, I’ve been thinking about how seemingly difficult it’s been for Barack Obama to enact parts of his agenda — health care, tax hike on the wealthy, ending corporate-tax loopholes, drawing down in Iraq, funding the closing of Guantánamo Bay, to name a few.

Then I thought back to how George W. Bush really did seem to just show up and start kicking ass, cutting off funding for overseas family-planning clinics who advocate abortion (which, to be fair, Obama has since restored), cutting taxes almost to the point of eliminating them, and (ahem) getting us mired in this whole Iraq mess in the first place.

Then it dawned on me: Bush’s first “election” was one of the most contentious in history. Depending on which way you look at it, he either won or lost by a fraction of a percent. And of course, Al Gore, no matter how you slice it, won more popular votes. Something like 500,000 more popular votes.

I wondered about the makeup of Congress during the four congressional elections that took place under Bush, and what kinds of majorities he enjoyed. Again, not too imbalanced either way:

107th (let’s call the 2000 presidential election a tie, 48-48)
Senate fairly evenly split the entire time
House roughly 221-210 most of the time

108th (mid-term)
Senate is pretty much 51-48 the whole session
In the House, GOP builds slightly on its majority, 227-207 average

109th (Bush re-election by 51-48 margin)
Senate begins with its largest GOP majority under Bush, 55-45
House hovers around 230-202, also its largest GOP lead in Bush’s eight years.

110th (mid-terms, when Democrats flip both houses)
Senate is tied, with two independents caucusing with Dems
The House lands firmly in Democratic control, 233-202, a near mirror-reversal of the 109th

111th (Obama wins the presidency by a 53-46 margin)
In the Senate, Dems build on their narrow majority, to a commanding 59-40 lead
Democrats in the House gain enough seats to enjoy a 256-178 lead, far larger than anything the GOP had in its 14 years as majority party

So, there you have it. Put simply, in both his election as president and in the makeup of Congress under his term, Barack Obama’s “mandate” from the voting public makes mince meat of George W. Bush’s. So what’s the deal?

Or am I just being impatient, as I’m wont to do?

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