What's more, the West Wing is filled with aides who have extensive ties to Congress, who were hired specifically for their Hill work.

Not to mention Biden, Clinton, Salazar, Solis, LaHood, and almost Daschle and Gregg. Does Chief of Staff count as an aide? If not, add Rahm. Obama designed his White House to work with Congress rather than against it. After eight years of Bush, that is not nuance.

Linsday Graham hates the stimulus bill, says it will not help his state. Since South Carolina does not need the stimulus, could this money be shared amongst the other states who badly need it? I am sure Lindsay - patriot that he is won't object to that!!!!

And, to point out the obvious: Obama is a natural leader. People want to follow him.

I think you have to add the Congressional years in the wilderness of 1992 to 2006. When Clinton came in, the Congress (the House, mostly) had enjoyed long years of majority.

The Contract with America years I think profoundly changed the Democratic Congressional mindset.

Knowing how fragile governing majorities are, I think Congress would have been favorably inclined to work closely with any Democratic President, in the interest of mutual continued success.

I will say that Obama' Administration is probably coming in as the best possible crowd to take advantage of the Comgressional mood.

Perhaps also, today's Democratic leader realize (and with help from bloggers etc.) that Obama is up against a coordinated attack campaign from a right-wing political/economic/media/cultural complex that would rather have the nation fail in order to "protect conservatism" (and their assets and dominance) than to have a Democratic President succeed.

Yes, as the first sitting Senator - Perhaps, Dole's problem was "setting", as in, his sun had set.

Now, get back to work, nationalize the banks, weed out the Zombies, and re-sell the surviving ones, and get out new bill on building schools and our infrastructure This was NOT a center right election result. Do not waste the momentum.

Perhaps also, today's Democratic leader realize (and with help from bloggers etc.) that Obama is up against a coordinated attack campaign from a right-wing political/economic/media/cultural complex . . .

Ah! The "elephant in the room" that so many have had trouble seeing, particularly congressional Democrats, for ten years or so, although the "coordination" is less political than cultural.

The Beltway and the Republicans have closed ranks against the Democrats so completely that even the Democrats have noticed that they are second-class citizens in Washington.

Yeah, when you are in the majority and pushing an all-important program and for three weeks you are effectively outnumbered by your opponents about 4 to 1 in every national forum, it might finally dawn on you that the networks are not your friends!

I'd add 2 more explanations, although I think the 2 explanations in the post are more important.

1) in 77 and 93 Democrats in Congress assumed that they were the majority for life. The idea that Republicans could actually gain a majority in the House was strange to bizarre. This matters to Senator too as they have to vote on conference committee reports. 1994 helped unite the Democratic party by showing Democrats in congress that they could be punished too if Democrats failed to deliver.

2) Stimulus is fun. So far Obama has managed to convince congressional Democrats to cut taxs and raise spending. This is what the economy needs right now, but it is also pleasant. We'll see how things go when he gets around to trying to raise taxes on the rich and force firms to provide health insurance (rich guys your paying more it will take 60 votes to extend the Bush tax cuts).

In'77, they were a majority in name only. There was still a deep division between the anti-war faction and the moderate to conservatives of the party. This rift, began in '68, remained for many years. In addition, Carter brought a staff to DC which did not understand how to work with Congress.

What Robert Waldmann said.

I don't doubt that the other explanations have weight, but it's a little easier to get Democrats to love the President when he's asking them to spend $780 billion in their districts and states.

But it actually goes beyond that. They love him because he's a popular President who gave them cover to spend $780 billion by explaining to the American people why it was OK to add to the debt.

That's all great and I'm in favor of it. But let's not pop the champagne until we see how much they love him on the tough bills. Like rescuing the financial industry.

There might also be an element of "lessons learned" going on here. The Democrats saw how the Congressional GOP completely rolled over for W from 2001 to 2007 and all the epic failures and disasters (political, economic, military, government, etc.) that followed. I think Obama, Pelosi, Reid, et al are seeking a much more collegial and collaborative relationship between the two branches that first and foremost places a premium on competent executive and legislative governance.