Forecasting Obama's final two years in office

While it’s hard to find anyone in the administration who sees any upside for Mr. Obama if the GOP controls both chambers of Congress–certainly no one is making a public case–one optimistic view of a GOP-controlled Congress is that maybe Mr. Obama would finally be able to cut some deals.

There are trade pacts the president wants, and that Republicans support. But those have been put on ice until after the midterms because they divide Democrats. Republican leaders would also like to tackle tax reform and an immigration overhaul, as would the president. Yet neither made any headway this election year. Tax reform presents Democrats with some tough, divisive decisions, and the immigration issue divided Republicans.

The idea is that after November, Republicans will be less inclined to block Mr. Obama because they’ll be looking toward the presidency in 2016 and will want to round out the GOP record to include some planks that have broader national appeal; at the same time, Mr. Obama could have more space to make deals because Democratic leaders won’t be reining him in with their own congressional politics.