Erick Erickson and Mickey Kaus mull over whether losing Congress would be a good thing for Obama. The president himself certainly doesn’t think so. His agenda and political instincts show no fondness for the political center. Moderation was a campaign tool, not a political disposition. And at least for now, he’s shown no interest in reaching out substantively to conservatives or moderates on health care, the stimulus, or any other initiative. Not only is there no sign he’d be comfortable with a Republican Congress, there’s nothing to suggest he’d be very good at working with it. He’s no John McCain. His list of bipartisan legislative accomplishments as a senator is thin if not nonexistent.

Whether it would be good for him and his presidency is another story. Plainly he and the Democrats lack the internal discipline to come off the left ledge of their party. The gap between the still center-right public and the president is vast. So the theory goes, better to have moderation “forced” upon him.

But divided government, as we saw following the Republicans’ losses in 2006, doesn’t necessarily make for a successful period of governance for the president. Obama can’t be forced to be an effective chief executive. It is easy to imagine an increasingly irritated and beleaguered Obama in a constant political food fight with Congress if Republicans roar back in 2010.

The bottom line then is that Obama may get a Republican Congress, or at least one lacking an effective liberal majority. And then he’ll have to decide if he will pout or do what he has never done in his political career—disappoint his left-wing base. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. After all, Obama has his hands full trying to get his agenda passed with the largest Democratic majority in a generation. If he can’t do that, the 2010 election may be the least of his worries.