Sentries

This is probably going to piss off both sides BUT, in my opinion, one of the major reasons that we had continuous peace and prosperity in the '90s was BECAUSE of divided government. The Republican Congress kept a check on the Clinton administration, and vice versa. Now, absolutely, we weren't able to accomplish everything (a reform of the health-care system, the most obvious omission). But think about it here, 20 million new jobs and four consecutive budget surpluses - does that not look like a pretty good record?...............................................................................................Of course, the question is, can something of a similar nature occur if the Republicans take control of the Congress this year? A great many people say no. They point to the fact that Obama appears to be far more of an ideologue than Clinton and, hence, he may not be able to triangulate like the latter. "They" also point to the increasingly strident nature of the Tea Party movement, the fact that this movement has more or less co-opted the Republican machine (the implication being that they're not going to want to be bipartisan, either)...........................................................................................Hopefully, though, there will be more cooperation. I mean, think about it, we've got what on the horizon; immigration reform, entitlement reform, deficit reduction? I personally don't see any of these things that can be solved by one party alone.....The way that I see it here - get something substantively done, and then argue over who gets the credit afterwards.