Congressional elections

There's no doubt that the results of the 2008 congressional elections will effect the prospects for "change" at least as much as (if not more than) will the results of the presidential election. Yglesias says:

When you control for the fact that it would sound silly for the candidates to just agree that they don't really have clear disagreements on the main issues, I mostly see two campaigns trying to make mountains out of molehills for the sake of having something to talk about. What's more, in practice there's only so much that "strategies for achieving" your legislative agenda can actually do. What matters most is not the strategy but the outcome of the congressional elections.

But to square the circle, people need to remember that these things are very tightly linked. More specifically, the names on the presidential ballot will--especially in purple districts--impact the overall results of the congressional elections.