Obama becomes filibuster-proof
Norm Coleman has conceded victory to Al Franken in the Minnesota senate race after eight months of recounts and litigation, as reported by the Star Tribune.
It has been obvious for some time that Franken was going to have the election given to him; delaying by Coleman was to keep the GOP’s ability to filibuster alive. Now that they have sixty seats, the Democrats (assuming Obama can keep the Caucus, which includes a GOP defector and two independents, together) can force a vote by invoking cloture. In plain English, the Republicans can no longer keep talking to stop a bill being passed. With the executive and legislative firmly in the hands of the Democrats and the judiciary marginal, the USA approaches what in the UK is called the elective dictatorship.
I have written about this previously: (One step closer to sixty, Towards sixty senate seats and The magic number sixty.
xD.
Update: over on the marvellous Twitter, Tim ‘Bloggerheads‘ Ireland says that
Republicans across America are shitting themselves and sticking pins in their golliwogs tonight. Next: GAY SOCIALISM!
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Mr Ireland is quite wrong. From the point of view of Rush Limbaugh, it’s already happened: White House celebrates LGBT Pride Month.
July 2nd, 2009 at 11:56 am
Interesting that for the first time, Obama’s approaval rating of the job he’s doing has gone negative.
jameshigham´s last blog ..[cancer] at any time, to anyone
July 2nd, 2009 at 5:41 pm
No it hasn’t. Gallup list him as having a 61% approval rating and a 30% disapproval rating, a net of +31. When asked on the state of the nation, 32% were satisfied and 63% dissatisfied, a net of -31. The approval ratings from Gallup have been more or less static, with a possible slight downward trend, while the disapproval ratings have slowly but consistently increased, but have never been higher than the approval ratings; indeed, they’ve never been within 25 points. Looking at the state of the nation, the proportion reporting satisfaction has always been below those reporting dissatisfaction; satisfaction was trending up and dissatisfaction was trending down, but seem to be stable at the moment.
While it is entirely fair to say that people are dissatisfied with the situation of the USA at the moment, people are generally more satisfied than when Obama came to power and are generally satisfied with his performance.
I would say that translates as meaning that the US electorate generally see him as doing a good job in a difficult situation.