Candidates Pack in Heavy Last-Minute Schedules
PHILLIPS: Well, it's been a while since Democrats held the White House and controlled both houses of Congress, but it's certainly not unheard of. The thought that it could happen again is striking fear in the hearts of Republicans. And CNN's Frank Sesno takes a look back at Democratic rule through the ages.</s>FRANK SESNO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Liberal landslides have happened before. In 1932 in the shadow of the Depression when FDR and New Deal Democrats swept to power and created government programs like Social Security, unemployment insurance, the FDIC, Fannie Mae. It happened again after Lyndon Johnson and congressional liberals won in '64. The Great Society poured federal dollars into new programs, Medicare, urban renewal, welfare, education. But experience suggests a liberal landslide is about more than numbers. Just ask Jimmy Carter.</s>STEPHEN HESS, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: In 1977, the Democratic president comes in with overwhelming Democratic majorities, both houses, 61 Democratic senators, 292 Democratic House members. And within one month, they were shouting at each other.</s>SESNO: What about 2008? Certainly Democrats would return to legislation they've pushed and Republicans have stopped. Health care, more coverage for kids leading to universal coverage, taxes, increase them for the wealthy and big corporations. They could also face more regulation, especially oil and pharmaceuticals. Unions, the Employee Free Choice Act is a liberal favorite. It would end secret ballots to unionize. Business warns of strong arm tactics that will all but impose unions. Embryonic stem cell research. More federal funding for that. The list goes on. But in a lot of districts where Republicans could lose, the impact of the newcomers isn't clear.</s>HESS: Those new Democrats are not going to be bug-eyed Democrats. Wild-eyed leftists. They're going to be Democrats who will have to run again for a seat that, let's say, has been electing historically a Republican. So that is a moderating force.</s>SESNO: Shifting tectonic plates?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The motion is adopted.</s>SESNO: Maybe.</s>PHILLIPS: OK. Frank. So you lay out the liberal side of things your piece. When was the last time we saw a Republican landslide?</s>SESNO (on camera): Republican landslide. That would have to be Ronald Reagan. It's very interesting. Some Democrats I'm talking to anyway say if Obama wins big and if there's a liberal majority, maybe even supermajority on the Hill, look for a Reagan-like relationship between Obama and the Hill. That is to say Reagan actually combated the Hill a lot of times. Yeah, he cut deals and he had to deal with Democrats there as well. But frequently he went right over the heads of Congress directly to the American people. A lot of Democrats say they know they don't have the strongest leaders and maybe two liberal leaders in Nancy Pelosi in the House, Senator Reid in the Senate. But Obama may have to come to the center and bypass the Congress, his own Congress in the process. At least at times.</s>PHILLIPS: So maybe there is this lack of balance in power. Then it doesn't necessarily mean a smooth path for the president.</s>SESNO: By no means. Look, the expectations would be huge if the democrats have a strong majority in the senate, maybe even a filibuster-proof majority, of the House Democrats pick up a lot of seats, they're all going to be projecting big expectations on Barack Obama. What is the Congressional Black Caucus going to want? What are the liberal Democrats from the Northeast going to want? What do the blue-dog conservative Democrats going to want? And Obama is going to have a very tricky road to walk if he wins with some big mandate to manage all those expectations and find a place that don't upset the rest of the country. Remember what happened to Bill Clinton when he started with gays in the military. He never recovered from that.</s>PHILLIPS: Well, Frank, there's concern that if the Congress is Democratic, the president is a Democrat, that there will be far less oversight.</s>SESNO: And that's a real possibility and a real danger in some ways. At least oversight in the terms of the kinds of checks and balances that tend to hold people back from sort of rushing to the exits or the entrances depending on how you look at it. But whatever happens, no matter how much -- or by how much Barack Obama or John McCain win, there's a reality here that's going to put a damper on all of this and all of the congressional expectations for that matter as well. And that's the economy. Whoever the president is going to be dealing with a budget deficit of somewhere between 700 billion and a trillion dollars. That's unbelievable. If it's at the upper end, we haven't seen anything like that in terms of percentage of GDP since World War II. They're going to be dealing with a recession here at home, quite possibly a global recession. So they're going to be tied up a little bit. And what they're going to actually be able to achieve, no matter what the oversight or what the enthusiasm is going to be will be paired back somewhat. I'd watch for that very closely.</s>PHILLIPS: Frank Sesno, thanks so much. Great to see you.</s>SESNO: Thanks, Kyra. Thanks a lot.</s>PHILLIPS: So while the candidates try to energize their supporters, energy continues to be a major issue on the trail. The latest, a debate over cap and trade energy policies. Cnnmoney.com's Poppy Harlow has our "Energy Fix" from New York. Hey, Poppy.</s>POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: Hey there, Kyra. Well, you know, throughout the weekend and again this morning, Governor Sarah Palin brought up on interview that Barack Obama gave in January to a newspaper in San Francisco. Take a listen.</s>GOV. SARAH PALIN, (R) VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He said that, sure, if the industry wants to build new coal-filed power plants, they can go ahead and try, he says. But they can do it only in a way that will bankrupt the coal industry, and he's comfortable letting that happen.</s>HARLOW: All right. What Sarah Palin is referring to is a cap and trade system. What that is, it's designed to reduce global warming. It's something that McCain and Obama both support. Here's how it works. Companies buy permits that allow them to emit carbon that is the byproduct of burning coal. The companies can buy, sell, or trade those permits on the open market but the government will begin to issue fewer and fewer credits, making it more expensive to pollute. That forces companies to innovate. A similar process was used to eliminate acid rain in the 1990s. So the question is the degree to which both candidates support it. Kyra?</s>PHILLIPS: So they both support cap and trade, but are there differences?</s>HARLOW: There are differences. As I said, it's the degree to which they do. Here is what they say. Obama says his cap and trade policy will reduce greenhouse gases by 80 percent by the year 2050. McCain says his policy will reduce those emissions by 66 percent by 2050. Obama's program, he says it will be economy-wide. McCain says his will exempt small businesses. Here's how it works. McCain's plan like Obama's would limit large companies' abilities to emit greenhouse gases. They may have to pay fines. But Palin is saying Obama's plan just go too far, saying it could bankrupt those. The reason we care if these companies survive right now, coal is our biggest source of electricity. Both candidates also, keep in mind, support something you've heard a lot about lately, clean coal technology. That's where the pollutants are essentially scrubbed away. McCain says he'll spend $2 billion annually to advance clean coal technology. Obama says he wants to create a public private partnership. He doesn't specify a dollar amount. So there's a difference but they're both supporting cap and trade. That is going to mean a big difference for a lot of energy companies in this country. Kyra?</s>PHILLIPS: All right. Thank you so much. Well, ahead we'll introduce you to a runner who is helping the homeless get back on their feet literally and figuratively one step at a time. She is one of our CNN Heroes.