>This president had control of both houses for two years - and for their actions, paid a pretty hefty price in two mid-term elections.

You've said this before and it's just not true. If you acknowledge that it took 60 votes to do anything significant in the Senate because the Republicans were being obstructive, Obama had what he needed for about 5 months, not two years.

Here's a nice chart: http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/did-the-democrats-ever-really-have-60-votes-in-the-senate-and-for-how-long/

Here's the takeaway. There were 58 D and 2 I able to vote from July 7, 2009 to August 25, 2009 and again from Sept. 25, 2009 to Feb. 4, 2009. That first block is the time after Franken was sworn in until Kennedy died; I can't say how much of that time Kennedy was actually physically able to vote, surely not all of it. Add in that Congress typically is in recess much of the summer, and for a number of holiday periods in the fall (at least Thanksgiving and Christmas), and the reality is that two years' control is a fiction.

Tamar