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The president and the leaders of the Senate and House have a lot of power over their party. They can threaten their own party members with everything from loss of campaign support to loss of committee power. So, having 60 in the Senate would give Obama and Reid (or whomever succeeds him) a little more pull on cloture votes.
But basically you are exactly right. Both parties will cross over at times, depending on the legislation, and sometimes the threats from leaders aren't as scary as the opinion of the voters, or the threats of economic backers. There are many alliances in Congress, not just party. Party is strongest, but it isn't absolute.
On many issues, we could pick up a moderate Repub or two if we needed it. On issues where we couldn't, we'd probably not have the support of conservative Dems, either.
Anyway, just saying, you're dead on, and thanks for the analysis. 60 isn't as magical a number as it's being portrayed to be. The media needed some drama to talk about on election eve, so that was it.
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