Well, maybe not quite, but I think you all may be surprised by my outlook on it... at least at parts. I generally agree with what (e:jason) says.

One of the things that has bothered me is the fact clearly the leadership at the Pentagon has been inadequate, yet President Bush has stuck with him. Mr. Bates has served 6 previous Presidents and I think will be a fine addition to the cabinet.

Republicans having lost the House will mean gridlock, period. Forget about all the niceties that people are exchanging and promises of good will - very little is going to get done in the next two years. Subpoenas will likely start flying like confetti, because although it was moderate and conservative Democrats who brought the House to Pelosi, the senior leadership that will be running the different comittees are among the most liberal in the party. Pelosi is crazy, but she's no idiot - as a skilled politician she knows that if certain kooks in her midst aren't restrained, everything that Republicans and Conservatives have been saying about the Democrats having power will show to be true.

There are a few things that I hope get achieved within the next two years, and are very plausible -

1. Substantial increase in the federal minimum wage. I'd love to see ANY politician make it on $5.15 an hour. Many Americans earn this level of money, but not nearly enough to suggest that somehow this will mean a substantial increase in the quality of life for the middle class. It should be done simply because its the right thing to do.

2. Some kind of agreement on stem cell research. Science shows that the embryonic variety has promise although its yielded less results. If embryos that exist are going to be destroyed, why not use them for research? I see no problem with this. However, creating embryos specifically to destroy them for research will not fly. To be honest this is a long shot since a similar bill already got vetoed.

3. Immigration reform. Build a wall, create a method by which the border can be tracked 24x7, set up a guest worker program, and create an arduous but meaningful method by which the illegals we currently have can be naturalized. Any bill that comes short of the absolute best way to stop the flood of illegals will be unacceptable.

4. Taxes are going up. And by that I mean that the tax cuts that were implemented as they stand will not be renewed. We'll see exactly how this turns out, but generally this will likely be bad for small businesses - which is also why Democrats are talking about aid specifically for small businesses - paid for by the rich. Taking money from one person to give to another is absolutely deplorable. However, can somebody explain to me why oil companies need tax breaks?

Here are a few things that are certain NOT to happen -

1. Strategic redeployment in Iraq. Everybody knows that this is an effective pullout and will guarantee the collapse of a fledgling Iraqi government. President Bush will never allow it, so therefore its not going to happen, regardless of what Pelosi wants. We made our lunch in Iraq and we are going to eat it. By the way, the polls that many Democrats are quoting about the American people wanting a partial or full pullout from Iraq are the same polls that suggest an equal amount of people want none or only a few troops to be moved out.

2. Impeachment. Not only would this be a betrayal of the wishes of the voters who actually carried the House to the Democrats, but Americans in majority have no desire to see President Bush get impeached. Impeachment is a minority desire stressed by liberal special interest groups and do not reflect the majority of even the Democratic party. Pelosi has already stated that there will be no impeachment proceedings.

3. Social Security reform. Anything that Conservatives wanted to do with SS is certified dead as of today. There wasn't much political will to partially privatize SS anyway, and now that Democrats are in control of the House its a certainty that this will never happen. For me, I think its a wonderful idea just to leave it alone, but the big problem will soon be how to pay for the benefits that the baby boomers are going to be collecting. Although this may not happen in 2 years, *something* will have to happen within the next 4-8 years; none of the options are good.

In general, nobody is going to get the things that they really want and no big decisions are going to be made. This is officially a lame duck government until '08, which is why most political operatives, as of today, are working on the election in '08.