Senate Predictions

The world has been waiting for Ben Buchwalter’s 2008 Senate predictions. The world has to wait no longer. Here it is:

The Democrats will gain in Virginia, Alaska, Oregon, Minnesota, North Carolina, New Mexico, Colorado and New Hampshire. That will bring the total to 59 Democrats, and 41 Republicans. That includes the two independents who have caucused with the Democrats for the past two years, Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Joe Lieberman of Connecticut. But I think the Dems are going to cut Joe Lieberman loose due to his increasingly conservative agenda and support of John McCain in this election. I hope they don’t do that. I’m certainly not Lieberman’s biggest fan, but I don’t like the idea of the guy being blacklisted because he chose to cross the aisle.

Most likely, the Dems will not be able to get the magic majority of 60 votes to override a Republican filibuster. But its close enough so that the Democrats could do a lot of good in the next two years – especially if some Republicans are willing to cross the aisle from time to time. I think we will see this happen a lot as the country is shifting blue right now.

So I have Barack winning with 364 electoral votes, 59 Democratic senators, and a larger Democratic margin in the House of Representatives. I think it will be better than the average Tuesday.