The GOP has an 82 percent chance of taking the Senate in the midterm elections — even if the Obama administration begins getting positive press over the next six months, according to John Sides, professor of political science at George Washington University.
"Midterm years aren't typically good for the president's party. The economy's not growing that fast, the president is not that popular, and thus far Republicans are recruiting some pretty decent, experienced candidates," Sides told "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV.
"All those things put together mean that there's a better than average chance that Republicans are going to take back the Senate this year."
Sides, who co-authors
"The Monkey Cage" blog in The Washington Post, said the political landscape could change in the coming months, but not enough to spoil a GOP victory.
"The most important thing would be if there were some kind of period of relatively sustained economic growth," he said.
"Obviously, we've had two conflicting indicators in the last couple of weeks. One was the first quarter gross domestic product numbers, which were very, very low. Some people blame that on the fact that it was such a cold winter and that depressed economic activity to some extent.
"On the other hand, we had at least a decent jobs report last week. If there were a string of good reports and good economic news, perhaps that would give the president's approval numbers a little bit of a lift and put a little bit of a tail wind behind some of the Democrats."
But it won't be enough.
"That's going to be a modest benefit at best, even if it comes to pass," Sides said.
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