Obama fights Senate history in elections

As President Obama and the Democrats try to deny Republicans a majority in the United States Senate, they're fighting both the GOP and political history.

Since the start of the 20th century, five of the six presidents who served two full terms had to deal with a Senate from the opposite party during their last two years.

An opposition Senate created all sorts of problems for Woodrow Wilson (who failed to win approval of the Treaty of Versailles after World War I), Dwight Eisenhower (various budget battles), Ronald Reagan (Iran-Contra), Bill Clinton (impeachment), and George W. Bush (opposition to the Iraq War).

The only exception to late-second-term Senate opposition Senate: Franklin D. Roosevelt, a presidential exception in so many ways; he won four elections. But even FDR had his troubles with a Senate coalition that included Republicans and conservative Democrats.

(This analysis does not include two-term presidents who had one truncated term: Theodore Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, Harry Truman, and Lyndon Johnson, all of whom ascended on the death of a predecessor and later won presidential elections on their own; and Richard Nixon, who resigned in the middle of his second term.)

Obama and the Democrats may be able to defy the opposition Senate trend in next month's elections. The stakes range from judicial appointments to Obama budget priorities to the conduct of investigations into the Obama administration.

And, either way, Obama will still more than likely face a Republican-run House of Representatives.