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Dragged down by an unpopular president, Republicans are bracing for a midterm trouncing
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 27 Dec 2025
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Adding on to that:
Obama had only the house for the first two years. The Senate has the filibuster rule which means control takes 60 seats.
On January 20th, 2009, 57 Senate seats were held by Democrats with two Independents (Bernie Sanders and Joe Lieberman) caucusing with the Democrats for 59 kinda' Democrat-ish votes in the Senate. Two more needed for "both houses".
Also, that included Ted Kennedy and Al Franken. Kennedy had a seizure basically at the start and never returned to vote. Al Franken wasn't seated until July 7th, 2009 because of repeated recounts.
So really 57 Senate seats. Three or four more for him to have both houses.
Kennedy was replaced by Paul Kirk in September and three other people swapped parties. So Obama had full control of the House and Senate from September 24, 2009 through February 4, 2010.
Four months.
If you're looking at that and thinking, "isn't that when they wrote and passed the ACA?" then you've got a good eye and a better memory.