To get 85 votes on anything in the Senate, you're telling lobbyists and the corporate cons who pay them that they've got veto power over any legislation. Eighty five votes is the political equivalent of the status quo.

Jane Hamsher, The Nation

There is much speculation going on right now about how Obama would govern if elected president. On Sunday John Kerry was on Meet the Press talking about how he would urge Obama to "build 85-vote majorities" in the Senate. Doug Schoen, the political mastermind whose strategy for the past eight years has largely been telling Democrats to accommodate George Bush, says that Obama must demonstrate his commitment to bipartisanship by appointing Republicans to his cabinet.

That may be fabulous political speech, but people who pay even remotely close attention to politics know that in order to get 85 votes on anything in the Senate, you're basically telling lobbyists and the corporate cons who pay them that they've got veto power over any legislation. There is no shiny new bill with pearly white teeth that is going to make everyone happy--if there were, it would've passed already. Eighty five votes is the political equivalent of the status quo.

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