Specifically, I’m thinking about what happens if the Democrats take both the Presidency and a small majority in the Senate (I’m assuming there’s essentially no chance of the House flipping).
Would they be a more unified party in the first year-and-a-half of a Clinton Presidency than they were during the first half of Obama’s first term? Since any hopes of real bipartisanship in Congress seem misplaced at the moment, would they solidify enough to do as much as can be done with just the Senate and Presidency (I’m thinking mostly of judicial appointments, confirmations of agency heads, etc.), knowing that they stand an excellent chance of losing that majority in the 2018 mid-terms?
What notable actions seem possible or even likely for the new Congress if we assume a Hillary Clinton Presidency, a Republican House, and a small Democrat majority in the Senate?
That depends on what kind of Democrats are in Congress. From what I remember, a lot of conservative Blue Dog Democrats were in the House back then. Guys like Ben Nelson who exacted a terrible price for watering down Obamacare before he would vote for it. Is the party in Congress more liberal than that? Are these people ones who understand what the current GOP stands for? And are they willing to possibly use political capital and push through something they know is right (lowered or eliminated student loans, raising the minimum wage, restoring voting rights, etc.) or are they more concerned with holding on to their seats?
I’m not sure why you think the first two years of Obama’s first term were bad in terms of getting things done. The stimulus and Obamacare were big fucking deals, but they got done.
These are the least controversial things dealt with by a party in power. I guarantee you there will be no undue controversy over these issues. If Clinton makes a bad pick for a nomination – as virtually all Presidents do – you might see one cabinet level nominee withdraw. But this is pretty standard.
I’m pretty sure Guantanamo will be closed. Finally.
Wikipedia: The 111th Congress “…has been considered one of the most productive Congresses in history in terms of legislation passed since the 89th Congress, during Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society.”
I’d say its accomplishments exceeded that of the 89th.
In addition to those huge pieces of legislation, the 111th gave us credit card reform, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, financial reform (Dodd-Frank, also a BFD), the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, and the Shark Conservation Act. Ok, I had not heard of that last one. Still.
All of that passed under the most vicious obstructionism experienced to that date in US history. This included a bogus lawsuit which prevent Al Franken being seated until June 2009.