In a preview of what may lie ahead for the Democrats with the fall elections, Japan’s voters turned in poor marks for the ruling party.

Here’s the exact quote pulled from the Reuters article:

“Voters dealt Prime Minister Naoto Kan's Democratic Party of Japan a stinging rebuke in the election, depriving the DPJ and its tiny ally of a majority less than a year after the Democrats swept to power with promises of change.”

And here’s what I think it could look like the day after the fall elections:

“Voters dealt President Barack Obama’s Democratic Party a stinging rebuke in the election, depriving the President and his allies of a majority less than two years after the Democrats swept to power with promises of change.”

It’s not that different, and it’s not that far out of the realm of possibility.

While the Democrats will probably not lose their majority in either house of Congress, the idea that they could lose a few seats and be without even a chance of getting things through the Senate is very real. They have lost two seats in recent weeks to death, and they are already in the position of having to win Republican allies to get anything through the pipes in any kind of fashion.

Here’s another quote:

“It leaves Kan vulnerable to a challenge from inside his own party, though he said he would stay in his job.”

Obama’s job would not be directly threatened, but it would definitely leave him open to challenges from within his own Party. The article goes on to talk about how Kan and his Party will need new allies to get anything done, and that’s exactly what Obama will need. If he loses seats in the election, he’s going to need to get more Republicans on his side. And that means he’s going to have to start making policies that are more leaning toward the Republican point of view, or at least allowing for more negotiation and more ammendments in there that he and the Democrats don’t really want. The problem then is that though he would still be getting things through, they would be more watered down and have more Republican ideas in them. People within his own Party would be looking for a lightning rod to vent to, and he would be that, and their scapegoat. I can see them throwing him under the bus to try and save the overall Party in the next round of elections, especially if his approval numbers don’t go up. That would be a dangerous turn back toward the Republican rule, and if that happens, most of what Obama has been able to accomplish in his two years, which has been substantial, would be either taken away or watered down to the point that it no longer had the change effect that he set out for it to have. We would have to start listening to Sarah Palin give speeches again. We would have to hear Beck and Limbaugh celebrate. We would be right back where we were two years ago.

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