With the election over and mere months before the Democrats are set to have majority control of Congress, many people are left wondering what will happen next and what exactly will be different in the remaining two years of the Bush administration.

“There’s two things that could happen,” said Bryan Jones, professor of political science. “They could begin to govern with a little bit more bipartisanship, or they can close the gates and veto bills.”

“I think they’re still trying to figure out what to do,” said professor Donald Hellmann from the Jackson School of International Studies. “I don’t know what the result will be of a new Secretary of Defense and a new Congress on the will and attitude of the president. I don’t know whether they will fight and resist or bend,” he said.

What will happen with the Iraq war, which many believe to be the deciding factor in many of the races that eventually lost the Republicans control of both houses, is a major concern in the aftermath of the election.

“[One] possibility is phased withdrawal, move back to the bases and get the Iraqis to take more responsibility,” Jones said.

“Frankly, the Democrats…are unlikely to come up with the formula for meeting the political mood of America and, at the same time, address the basic problem of peace in the Middle East,” Hellmann said. He said the only effective solution would come with a region-wide strategy that deals with problems outside of Iraq’s borders too.

Still, many wonder what, if anything, a Democratically controlled Congress will do differently.

“There will be some serious oversight of the Iraq war,” Jones said. The executive branch has breached proper conduct several times in dealing with Iraq, and that is something that the Democratic Congress will address, he said.

“Can you keep the lid on the Democrats from investigating the lies of the Iraq war?” Hellmann said. “If they go that route, that’s a no-win situation.”

One thing both sides agreed with is that Bush’s popularity has waned.

“[The election] is going to hurt [his popularity], but it doesn’t have to,” Jones said. “My guess is he’s not going to play this particularly well … [H]e’s going to be confrontational.”

“I think his popularity is going to be right where it is,” Hellmann said. “There’s no easy way out of it. Once the threshold of popularity has been crossed, it’s very difficult to come back from that.”

With the legislative branch controlled by the Democrats and the Republican-controlled executive branch on its way out, the future of the presidency is in the air.

“Unless Bush reverses course, Republicans will run away from him,” Jones said. “There won’t be a ‘Bush candidate’ for the next election. With internal struggles, [the 2008 Presidential election] will be worse for the Republicans.”

“I think the message to get from this election can broadly be defined as the American public is turned off by Washington,” Hellmann said. “Whoever can sell bipartisanship, who can bring the American people together, will be a very successful candidate.”

Potential candidates for the 2008 election include Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani, Jones said.

“I think the only person who could appeal to the American public, so far, is [Illinois Sen. Barack] Obama,” Hellmann said.

Reporter Jeffrey Tripoli: news@thedaily.washington.edu