Hillary Clinton sends me an e-mail (well, a bzillion other people too) which begins:

Sixty is the magic number. If we reach 60 Democrats in the Senate, then the days of Republican obstruction are over. With Barack Obama and Joe Biden in the White House and a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, there’s nothing we can’t accomplish.

But we can’t reach 60 if these three Democrats don’t win their extraordinarily close races: Mark Begich up in Alaska, Jeff Merkley in Oregon, and Mark Udall in Colorado.

I need these three Democrats working side-by-side with me on the Senate floor to accomplish the goals you and I set out — rebuilding a strong middle class, health care for every American, and ending the war in Iraq. Barack Obama needs their help to reach a filibuster-proof majority that will end GOP obstruction once and for all.

Well there’s some motivation for you. She doesn’t underline the items on the Democratic wish list including abolishing secret ballot union elections, increasing taxes, repealing the Hyde Amendment, etc. But her heart’s in the right place.

That really does sum it up: once the Democrats hit 60 in the Senate there’s nothing Obama can’t accomplish. By the way, I’m waiting for all those thoughtful op-ed’s we saw in 2004 and 2000 on the benefits of divided government but I can’t find them.