In 1994, the Democrats lost control of both houses of Congress, losing 54 House and 8 Senate seats to the Republicans, who gained control of both houses for the first time since 1954!
Many see a similar result today, but conditions are different in a number of ways!
The Democrats had leadership which was really senior in nature then, with Tom Foley as Speaker and Dan Rostenkowski as Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, and there was lots of corruption within a party which had held control in the House for 40 straight years!
This time, the Democrats have only had control for four years, and Nancy Pelosi has been much more effective and successful than Foley was, and although former Ways and Means chairman Charlie Rangel is in trouble, it does not match the level of Rostenkowski and other senior Democratic leaders who were involved in scandal back then!
Barack Obama has accomplished much more than Bill Clinton had by this time in 1994, and while there is criticism of Obama, it is not personal in nature as Clinton faced then, with investigations going on on his personal life and years before the Presidency!
Newt Gingrich was a new, aggressive leader of the Republicans back in 1994, while John Boehner is older and more stodgy and far less imaginative today, not exactly a great leader to stir the troops in his party!
The Republicans have major headaches dealing with the Tea Party Movement candidates within its midst, but back in 1994, there was a greater sense of unity, instead of an internal struggle which could cause a rift and make the GOP totally ineffective in the next two years if they should win the control they are seeking!
Barack Obama may be at a low level of popularity right now, but again it was the same for Ronald Reagan in 1982 and Bill Clinton in 1994, and yet both went on to win reelection, and Obama has the capability to rally less than enthusiastic Democrats and attract independents, if he goes on an active equivalent of Harry Truman’s “Whistlestop Campaign” of 1948!
The bad economic conditions really hurt, but again if it is emphasized that the Republican opposition has no new ideas, and that things could have been a lot worse without the policies and actions of the Democratic majority in both houses and the President’s efforts, this year does not have to be another 1994!