Note: This is not a projection, it is however a real possibility.
One thing you will see for sure is that the filibuster rules will be changed; so the President will have a very unfriendly congress and SCOTUS to face pretty much alone, since from past experience the Democratic Party shows no sign of being a particularly effective opposition.
Now I suppose he could veto everything that comes to his desk, the cries of obstructionism would be deafening and the Republicans would say "look what we have been dealing with the last six years". The MSM would probably play ball with this view as well "what no bipartisanship" yada, yada, even if it was in vetoing the trashing of the Affordable Care Act.
The Republicans certainly wont make any concessions or even the flicker of bipartisanship since they have shown zero intent to do so, so far, and probably have no need to change tactics since they won using the same strategy.
He could sign everything the put on his desk with a presidential signing statement.
At this point Democratic members of congress will be more interested in 2016 by not rocking the boat and certainly not aiding a President who is perceived to be unpopular. They can blame the loss of the senate on him, rather than their own lackluster performance. I foresee more surrender (look how bipartisan we are) than fight.
The Republicans meanwhile will go legislation crazy, well they have had plenty of rest the last few years alongside so many investigative committees it will make your head spin. Benghazi parts 1 to infinity.
I suppose he could always say to the voters "you wanted it, you got it" (which would be a fairly truthful statement) and say yes to every bill put before him. However this would make him about as effective a figure as G W Bush was in 2008 in the 2016 election cycle.
Just thinking about this makes me depressed, so heaven knows how the President feels about the possibility. Oh good grief and just the thought of the Presidential campaign if the common wisdom holds true; makes me even more depressed.
I have my fingers crossed that one analyst's projections hold true
I’ve been asked why the PEC Senate poll snapshot is more favorable to Democrats than forecasts you’ll find elsewhere: NYT’s The Upshot, Washington Post’s The Monkey Cage, ESPN’s FiveThirtyEight, and Daily Kos. All of these organizations show a higher probability of a Republican takeover than today’s PEC snapshot, which favors the Democrats with a 70% probability.
The result is that the November Senate win probability for the Democrats (i.e. probability that they will control 50 or more seats) is 65%.
Finally…I note that this is all a work in progress. I’m using PEC as a sandbox for kicking around ideas. With that, I invite reader reactions.
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Then perhaps even the common wisdom choice for the Democratic candidate in 2016 might also prove to be unfounded.
The question is:
Do I have enough fingers to go round?