To them at the end of their presidency they all had to deal with the house and the senate being in control of the opposite party bill clinton was a democrat in his second term election, he did not lose the Senate Majority because it was not theirs to lose, but they stayed in the minority in both the senate and the house. Every twoterm president of the modern era has had to serve the last two years of his presidency with both houses of congress being controlled by the other party. This is what happens to second term presidencys. Every time. At least over the course of my lifetime, this is how it goes. And before, even if you do want to go back further than that, it was true of eisenhower, as well. This has now proven to be almost a historic inevitability of what happens to president s when they get to their second term and second midterm election. The other guys in charge of congress. It must be a huge drag if youre president to know thats coming. But even though that is the history, nobody knows for sure if thats going to be president obama in elections, as well. Republicans will certainly hold the house. Nobody yet knows if they will take the senate. Republicans will seem very account e confident that they will take the snats. The repub licans. In midterm e lerkss, the president s party loses an eave rang of four senate seats in each midterm election. If, however, you focus in on just the second midterms, just the mid temples on a president in his sixth year of office, the number of senate seets loses on average is 5. 8, lets round to six. The historical average levels in tomorrows election, the Republican Party tomorrow will take six senate seets from the democrats. And, coincidentally, six senate seets happens to be the naex e exact number of seets they need to take from the democrats in order to take control of the United States senate. All they have to do is hit the historical eave rang and they will get what they waj e want. E if they dont, theyll have some explaining to do. So far. So that context is not about any one race. That doesnt tell you whats going to happen to any one individual candidate tomorrow or any individual state tomorrow. Thats just the historical precedent for what happens in elections like the one we are about to have. And if past is prologue and tomorrow does follow that very clear, historic pattern, well, then, the next thing to consider is what happens once republicans do have control of the United States senate as well as the United States house of representatives. If they have complete control of congress, what are they going to want to do with it . No idea. Texas senator ted cruz dipd a Washington Post interview whether he said hes already not sure whether he will vote for the majority republicans in the senate. Theyre already fighting over the booty when they havent even raided the castle yet. If republicans do meet historys expected tagszs and they do take complete control of congress tomorrow, well, okay. This is the legislative record u the quantitative legislative record of achievemented for what is known as the donothing congress. After world war ii, 1948, harry truman branded the congress that year the donothing congress. In that famous picture holding up a newspaper, dewey got the Election Results wronk. Other than that headline, do you remember anything else about tom mass dewey . Are you even sure that his first name was tom mass . No, nobody remembers anything about thomas dewey. Harry trksz ruman didnt everyone bother running against him. He basically ignored the republican candidate. He ran against the donothing congress and he won. And that will forever be known as the donothing congress. Its the historic benchmark in our nation for the failure of a political institution, right . For the failure to act. That congress did nothing. Forcomparisons sake, the 112th congress there, thats the legislative record of the last congress we just had. They say theres nothing new under the sun . Bull puckey. We are setting new records for congress doing less than it ever has done before. Usa, zurks u usa,e usa. Its officially the least Productive Congress in the history of congress. And, now, this is the record of the Current Congress that were in right now. The kushCurrent Congress, their record so far. We might even beat the record, which we set last year. Congress has never done less in the history of the yiet e United States of america than it has done since republicans took control of the house in 2010. If the Republican Party also takes the senate, though, i think its reasonable to expected that that record of doing absolutely nothing will change. Republicans in control of the two houses of congress will probably find a way to agree with each other enough to pass things. Because they will be able to do it with all republican votes. Once they can act in washington without having to deal with the democrats at all, my guess is they probably will start passing stuff. Democrats will not be able to stop them in the house or in the senate, barring the filibuster. If the republicans take control of both of thoer parties, democrats will not be able to stop them in congress at all. They will leave it up to president obama himself. President obama alone will be the counter weight to the allrepublican congress if the republicans take the senate tomorrow. And that is going to be a lot of fun to cover. When this same thing may happen to president obama tompl happened to jorjs bush in 2006, when the democrats took control in both houses of congress, george w. Bush, at that point, had only vetoed one bill over the entire time he had been pet. After 2006, after the opposite party took control, he issued 11 vetoes in his last two years in office. Heading into tomorrows elections, pet obama, so far, in this presidency, has only vetoed two pieces of legislation. Neither of which are things that anybody remembers. One of them was basically a t o typo. Congress passed a stock e stopped gap thing because they thought they were not going to be able to pass a spending bill. But then they passed a spending bill, too. It was just kind of a screw up. It was a nonevent. Only one of those things could be lost. The headline in the New York Times today, president obama issued his very first veto as president is this. Veto from obama does not stop presses. Its not the most important thing. The only other thing he has ve e vetoed had to do with who im kidding you im not kidding you. It had 20 do with who is allowed to notarize your mort gant e gang documents. Now, no offense to notaries or mortgage documents, but that veto was not exactly an earth h eshattering political move. All of the politics and the kimpblt e different types of political excitement that we have had during the obama years, we have had pree precisely zero excitement over president ial vetoes. It has only happened twice so far and neither time did et e it even make the frount e front section of the pam e paper when he did it. But if his ri is right about whats going to happen in tomorrows election, that whole veto thing is about to get a lot more exciting. Were about to have a whole big new thing to be controversial and kbieting in our politics. Looking ahead to how tomorrows election may or may not change your life if you are interested in politics, you were aboare ab have a lot more barack obama in your politics if they can get it together to as e pass legislation through the house and senate. President obamas desk is going to become a much more swresibli interesting place than it has been. That is an exciting pros pekt. The other thing that we know is going to happen after tomorrows election is that president obama is planning on doing stuff without congress. Felt president obama has said that he will take executive action without congress on the issue of immigration. If you want to know what else is going to happen, if history is right and the republicans have a great day tomorrow, if you want to know what else that is going to mean in your life and as a political life as a nation, our friends at fox news are already s so excited about the pros pekt of president obama acting on the issue of em e immigration what theyre going to do if republicans get control of both house of Congress Starting tomorrow. Theyre already talking about what theyre going to do in response. I dont want to give it away, but itsd initials are impeople e peachment. Theyre already talking about impeachment. White house has basically said hes going to, right after the election,the midterms, he is going to issue abe an executive action in his talk. There was a big thing in the wall street georjournal this wed that, in effect, would not give legal slaigs eization to up to 4 million people. I promise you, if he does that, if he, by executive action, goes goeng e gen goes against congress and legalizes 4 million people. Youre going to see calls for impeachment. Impeachment. Theyre already calling ffr e for it. Theyre already planning on it. Blank blaeng. If the republicans do capture the senate, theres no more excuses about impeachment. See what weve heard so far is we cant do that because we can never get it through the senate. The house can impeach him, but the senate would never convict. It would gijust be a waste of time. Well, if they have control of the senate, it wont be. Well see how they deal with this e e, postelection, if they happen to win control of the senate. Thats tony perkins from the Family Research council. Over at world net daily, your source for wheres the birth certificate. Its our olt friend roma daily banging the drum for impeoplement there u as well. Blank bla blank. So on fox news, theyve already got it in motion as best as they can. Tomorrow, they take the senate. The day after that, they start working to waerd impeachment. Remember the summer republicans in the house came up with a plan that was supposed to drain some of the energy away from the calls on the right to start impeaching pet obama from something . House peep e speaker joan boehner said he would file a laut against president obama instead of filing impeachment proceedings. This is supposed to day vert energies into this lawsuit against president obama, instead. Since then, that supposed lauts has never been filed. Two different law firms have now kwit after being hired by the house speej e speaker to bring case. They just didnt ever bring nick with it. And the fire on the right, and in the conservative media and on fox news to impeople r peach president obama for something, sm e sometime soon, that fire on the right is burning hotter than i think the beltway realizes right now. Nob nobody knows fr sure in e if republicans are going to take the senate tomorrow. History suggests that they will. As you can see tonight, im at a different desk, were at the big new deszing. Were at big, new set. Lots of head room. Were set up for Election Night tomorrow night. The best we can tell from this Vantage Point is that the next two years are going to be not just a big deal, theyre probably going to be a big mess, which makes this business a very fun place to work. Joining us now is an dree ya mitchell here on msnbc. Great to see you. Great to be here. Nice i dont think i get to keep them. This election might go until january. I feel a little bit like heading into these elections, that theres two interesting things i cant get my head around. One of them feels like its very close. You look at things like the jell n jeller in generic. It seems like theyre very close. History tells us it wont be close. How do you approach Something Like this. Very, very cautiously. It is close. Akording to all of the polling. Polling can be wrong. But in every place we look, all the data show that its very close, we dont tee e see signs of this republican wave. Else specially in the nbc news wall street journal poll. Which show e now shows it neckinneck with people who say we want a Democratic Congress and a republican congress. Our best thinking, in looking at this is that people are so upset. So turned off by the deadlock, the gridlock, the argment, the commercials, the plun thats been spent. They are angry at the incoupe ie bents and they really righthand turn decided or havent decided up until now which way too express that anger. Do they stay home, in which case it basically advantages the people who are committed voters and midterms that often more older voters or does it inspire the space e base. Democrats getting angry enough and fearful enough about what they say will happen if the republicans take over if the young people will come out. And weve got ermly voting and keystate kroe kro, which is mailin voting. For the first time. For the first time we deent nope in a really important, close election in north carolina, what kind of voter intimidation is going to take place. Thats been ground zero, as you have reported, more important listenly than anyone else. I feel like looking ahead. I feel like else specially looking at previous, twoterm president s, they all had to deal with congress having control by the opposite party. Thats part of what makes it feel like a historic inevitab inevitability. Is there any way to look ahead toward what changes in washington, if the republicans do take control . I mean, policymaking, no policy is being made in congress, anyway. Presumably, no policy made in congress controlled on both sides because president obama will veto anything that they bant to pass that he wants to disagree with. Is there nigd based on what those last two years would be like and how theyd be different . If you look at Ronald Reagan, both of whom were struggling in their second terms with scan dalt. One impeachment, the sex scandal. The other iran contra. Bad scandals. The presidency was almost going down. It was saved by houf aerd baker and other people who came in as new chiefs of staff. But if you look at them, they didnt have to deal with an obama e Opposition Party which is controlled by the wings as this Republican Party. It was pretea party. It was preted cruz. And there was an accommodation by the Opposition Party and the second term pet, Ronald Reagan got stuff done. Bill clinton got important stuff done. And they were able to work across even poeszscandal. Even without e with opposite Party Control in the congress. Exactly. So the question is which Republican Party is going to be in charge. You already saw ted cruz saying todd in alaska, im not sure i would vote for Mitch Mcconnell. Does Mitch Mcconnell have to deal with president shl candidates among his colleagues taking shots from all sides. Is ill e it going to be rand paul who said he thinks things can be done. Is it going to be the acomet dags who might try to reach a mill and do something on tax reform, do something on trade policy that, ironically, president obama has tried to do but democrats have stopped him. Or is it going to be a divided Republican Party in three parts. Candidates, very rightwing tea party, members who are not running for pet and more moderate people who want to prove that republicans can get something done, can govern to position themselves for 2016. This is going to be fascinating. Seeing them fight over the spoils before theyve attained them. And one key thing, take a look at the chairman ships that. Is the key. Joan joan mechanicccain is going to over armed services. Greatest hoax every perpetrated on mankind, he says. So youve got a very interesting agenda. An droo ya mitchell, weekdays another noons tern here on msnbc. I cant wait to help cover this with you. And ill have a big guest tomorrow on my show. Who do you have . Oh, rachel maddow. Ill have to get up in time to see. All right, just a few hours away now, for walltowall coverage tomorrow night, msnbc is lucky enough to retain the services of the great steve r i got this. [thinking] is it that time . The son picks up the check . [thinking] im still working. Hes retired. I hope hes saving. I hope he saved enough. Who matters most to you says the most about you. At massmutual were owned by our policyowners, and they matter most to us. Whether youre just starting your 401 k or you are ready for retirement, well help you get there. Its not about how many miles you can get out of the cmax hybrid. Its about how much life you can fit into it. The ford cmax hybrid. With an epaestimated range of 540 miles on a tank of gas. And all the room you need to enjoy the trip. Go stretch out. Go further. Go stretch out. Can you start tomorrow . Yes sir. Alright. Lets share the news tomorrow. Today we failrly busy. Tomorrow were booked solid. We close on the house tomorrow. I want one of these opened up. Because tomorow we go live. Its a day full of promise. And often, that day arrives by train. Big day today . Even bigger one tomorrow. When csx trains move forward, so does the rest of the economy. Csx. How tomorrow moves. You know what americans love . Americans love pot. Legalizing not just medical marijuana, but just sitting and getting high marijuana. They legalized marijuanas use and made its sale a legal, regular lated tax i believe di t regulated tax industry. In those two states, they have got reel pot already. And, tomorrow, two more may choose to go the same way. Washington, d. C. Will vote on it tomorrow. But theres also the prospect e pekt that congress will overrule because citizens of the District Of Columbia are second class citizens who are not allowed to make decisions like other people are in every other part of the contiguous United States. In florida, they will be voting on marijuana tomorrow. In florida,its not for recreational use. Its for medicinal use. And, as such, under florida law, it will actually take a vote of 60 in favor. 60 of the population instead of a simple majority would be needed to pass that medical Marijuana Initiative tomorrow in florida. Overall, its a really interesting question. Because americans love pot so much, its an interesting question as to what that Mariju