The question of coattails always gets a lot of play in US politics, particularly during presidential elections when congressional candidates try to score points with ad slogans like "My opponent shares the tawdry, latte-sipping Hollywood values of (insert Democratic nominee's name here)" or "My opponent voted 96% of the time to support the cruel agenda of (insert George Bush's name here)".
But as the country's foremost political minds declare today's special election in Mississippi the bellwether of a sensational versus merely excellent year for Democratic candidates, it's worth taking a deep breath and examining the historical record.
Since the end of World War Two, the candidate winning the presidency from the opposing party has helped his party pick up seats in Congress only three times: Dwight Eisenhower in 1952 (22 House seats, two Senate seats), Richard Nixon in 1968 (five House seats, five Senate seats), and Ronald Reagan (35 House seats, 12 Senate seats).
Could Obama or Clinton break that streak and help the Democrats consolidate their hold on Congress? Perhaps. But I'm not convinced that there's any deeper meaning in a race hinging on whether the conservative agreed to celebrate the founder of the Confederacy or the founder of the Ku Klux Klan.
