[sickoflibs]

RE :”3. Timing. The best way to have a wave election is to have the other party control the presidency during a bad economy or some kind of major scandal. Democratic waves in 2006 or 2008 owed a great deal to the non-existent income growth during the Bush years. The GOP wave owed a great deal to the economic crisis. But in 2012, Democrats will still have the White House, so they won't benefit from an anti-incumbent wave. (They may pick up some seats due to sporadic voters re-engaging.) The best hope of a big wave would come from a deep and extended economic crisis that gives Republicans control of government in 2012, continues through 2014 and paves the way for a midterm backlash. But that's not exactly a positive scenario. “

And this is from a liberal source. I might add that the split congress makes it very difficult for Obama to blame a Republican congress as Clinton did in 1995.

[Impy]

Most of the gains were in seats that the GOP should never had lost or taken this long to finally win.

Add that to favorable redistricting (outside of maybe IL and NY) and the GOP is well positioned to keep the house in 2012.