The Democrats’ victory in the United States’ mid-term election for the House of Representatives and the Senate this week was a big blow to US President George Bush and could pave the way for a change in the presidency in two years’ time.

Whether the Democrats will actually take over the presidency in 2008 is still a big question mark. Two years is a long time in politics and it takes little to change matters once again.

But Tuesday’s elections have shown a big swing in favour of the Democratic Party, and political observers have interpreted this as being the first step towards having a Democrat back in the White House, eight years after the departure of Bill Clinton.

The Democrats won by a narrow majority in the Senate – they will have 51 seats in the 100-seat Senate when the Congress reconvenes in January – and regained control of the House of Representatives with 232 seats, 14 more than is necessary in the 435-member chamber.

The Democrats also regained the majority of governorships in Tuesday’s election. Democrats now hold the top posts in 28 of the states holding gubernatorial races as against 22 for the Republicans.

The shift completely changes the scenario in American politics as it leaves President Bush without congressional control to put forward his legislative agenda. On the other hand, the victory was a morale-booster for the Democrats in their bid to regain the Presidency.

President Bush admitted it was a big defeat for his party, and now finds himself weakened and more isolated. He has offered Democrats gestures of reconciliation, but what happened in similar situations in the past is a clear indication that the last two years of his presidency will not be an easy affair.

For the most part of his six-year presidency, Mr Bush has ignored Democrats in Congress, relying on the Republican majority to pass legislation. But things are going to change as the Democrats now have control of both the House and the Senate for the first time in 12 years.

The Democrats will want to move ahead with proposals that Mr Bush has always rejected, such as the raising of the minimum wage, the cutting of student loan interest rates and the funding of stem cell research, to mention just a few.

But, apart from these internal difficulties that Mr Bush has had to face and will find more difficulty in facing over the next two years, the war in Iraq must have played a big part in the American people’s decision to favour the Democratic Party.

Generally speaking, the unpopularity of the war in Iraq has helped to increase the unpopularity of Mr Bush, and it is no wonder that, as the Associated Press reported, “exultant House Democrats plotted their return to power with a ‘new direction’ for the country on the Iraq war and new scrutiny of the Bush administration.”

The fact that Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld immediately resigned after the first results clearly indicated a Democrat victory is also evidence that the war in Iraq was a crucial factor in Mr Bush’s defeat.

Tuesday’s election set the ball rolling for the 2008 presidential elections. If the mid-term electoral results and the shift in favour toward Democrat candidates are anything to go by, the Democrats seem to be on their way to regaining the presidential seat come November 2008.

But, as said earlier, two years are a long time in politics, and things may change.

For now, Democrats are rightly jubilant after the victory and see it as a stepping-stone towards greater glory. But the Republicans are willing to fight back.

The race is far from being over. It has just begun.