With the switch of Arlen Specter into the Democratic Party and the eventual seating of Al Franken, the Democrats will have 60 votes in the Senate, giving President Obama a filibuster-proof majority as he pushes through his programs. How long has it been since a President had such a weapon in his arsenal? You'll have to go back to 1937 and Franklin Roosevelt.
Link to Karen Tumulty
In 1937, President Roosevelt permanently alienated some southern Democrats after his "court-packing" scheme. This began the era of internal divide within the Democratic Party that prevented a filibuster-proof majority.
From then until the late 1980s, the two parties in the Senate were too fractious internally to really function as a filibuster-proof majority. (For much of that time, it took a two-thirds vote to overcome a filibuster; in 1975, the Senate changed its rule so that it could cut off debate if 60 Senators voted to do so.) In Jimmy Carter's first term, for instance, there were more than 60 Democrats in the Senate. However, conservatives such as James Allen of Alabama often voted more to the right than their Republican colleagues, while there were liberal Republicans such as New York's Jacob Javits who rarely sided with their own party.
With the movement of the old-time Dixiecrats to the Republican Party in the Senate, the Democratic Senate Caucus is now, for the most part, a cohesive unit. President Obama now has an enormous opportunity to push his agenda forward in key areas that we never thought we'd be able to:
Health Care
Environment
Food Safety
Civil Liberties
Labor Rights (though we may need the Maine Senators to peel off)
D.C. Voting Rights
Banking Regulations
Education Spending
Student Loans
The list goes on and on. We have a real chance here, folks. We need to seize the moment and press with the reforms needed to move the country into the future.