I'm hearing a lot of post SOTU discussion about how in spite of all the bipartisan rhetoric on both sides, Obama has to figure out how to be successful with zero Republican votes, because he's not going to convince any of them to vote with him. Well if that's the case (and it probably is) then it will be difficult to get anything through the Senate.
They could change the Senate rules but probably not in time to make a difference for November and it could backfire on them anyway.
Instead I think he has to make their obstructionist strategy (which even Obama said might be a successful short-term strategy) backfire on them. If the Republicans block everything and November comes around, they're going to say the Democrats didn't do anything, blame them for the countries problems and say vote for change and vote Republican.
Instead the Democrats have to reframe that (and they aren't very good at this) to the Republicans are the reason nothing happened, they blocked things they like (tax cuts) and previously voted for, and even jobs creation packages and bank regulation. If you want change from the policies of the past vote for more Democrats to be able to get things done. Vote against the partisan stonewalling. And to make this effective, they need to demonstrate this throughout the year. I think Obama's speech was a good start to that, let's see if his policies continue. Either he gets things done or he wins more seats for the second half of his term (ok, I can dream for a little bit).
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