The New Media Journal | Congress Lemming-Like in Backing Obama in 2009

The New Media Journal | Congress Lemming-Like in Backing Obama in 2009: "President Obama set a new record last year for getting Congress to vote his way, according to an annual study by Congressional Quarterly.

In his first year in office, Obama won 96.7 percent of the votes on which he had clearly staked a position. That was a bit less than 4 percentage points higher than the previous record, set by President Lyndon Johnson in 1965...

In all, Congress took 151 votes in which Obama had taken a position ahead of time. His wins included votes for creating a massive economic stimulus package, bailing out the auto industry, letting the Food and Drug Administration regulate tobacco and confirming Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

But they also included key moves toward overhauling the healthcare system, regulating financial services and reducing greenhouse gases which have not yet passed both chambers of Congress.

That unfinished work will be taken up in the second session, which begins Tuesday. Obama's ultimate success will depend on how well his second year in office goes.

In the House, Obama won 68 votes and lost four. Among the losses: a vote to disapprove further spending on a bank bailout and a July vote to pass a food safety overhaul. Both were temporary setbacks since Congress eventually ended up supporting the president's position.

In the Senate, Obama won 78 votes and lost one. The Republican win there came on an amendment which would have barred spending money to transfer detainees from the Guantanamo Bay prison camp to the United States. In the end, the bill allowed the transfer under certain conditions.

To build this record, Obama relied heavily on Democratic majorities with only occasional support from the GOP. As in the healthcare overhaul, he also had to keep the entire Democratic caucus in the Senate in line...This is much different from President Johnson, who achieved the previous record by overcoming a divided Democratic caucus."