McCain, Obama not guaranteed easy road

WASHINGTON, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- U.S. voters, for the first time in nearly 50 years, will elect a member of Congress as president, choosing either Sen. Barack Obama or Sen. John McCain.

Congressional experience, however, doesn't guarantee either a Democratic presidency under Obama or a Republican presidency under McCain would have a good relationship with former colleagues, The Washington Times reported.

"With Obama, he was not in the Senate very long, and John McCain is not very well-liked in the Senate, so (their congressional experience) might cut the other way," said Gene Healy of the Cato Institute.

If Democrats make significant gains in their House and Senate majorities, an Obama administration would have a mandate to press ahead with his priorities, analysts said.

"Twenty or 30 years ago (the Democratic Caucus) had a progressive part in some parts of the country and a conservative wing in the South that in some ways meant that (Democrats) didn't run Congress from the top; it was run from the committees," John Fortier of the American Enterprise Institute told the Times. "That's very different today."

McCain has a history of cooperating with congressional Democrats, the Times said, but that doesn't indicate a cooperative legislative branch if he wins the White House, analysts said.

"The best-case scenario of a McCain presidency would be that McCain, like (former GOP President) Gerald Ford, would use the veto power vigorously and keep Congress in check," Healy said.