Dems and GOP continue posturing over 2010 outcome

The November midterm congressional elections are still three months away, but the beltway predictions game has already begun.

Vice President Joe Biden is sticking with his optimistic view of the upcoming November elections, telling ABC's This Week that he believes Democrats will perform better than people think. "We're going to win the House, and we're going to win the Senate," Biden said. "I don’t think the losses are going to be bad at all. I think we’re going to shock the heck out of everybody."

That's in contrast to White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs’s interview with Meet the Press last week, in which he noted Republicans could regain control of the House. His argument set off a week of back and forth between the White House and House Democrats.

But while the polls are definitely bad for Democrats, there are still signs that the party could avoid a political apocalypse—which is perhaps why the two Republican leaders in charge of the party’s campaign efforts notably toned down their estimates about how the GOP might do this fall.

In April, House Minority Leader John Boehner, who could very well be the next House Speaker if the GOP reclaims the House, said he believed his party could capture as many as 100 seats this November.

On Meet the Press, Rep. Pete Sessions, chairman of the House GOP campaign committee, tentatively predicted Republicans might pick up 40 seats. But his Senate counterpart, Texas’s John Cornyn, refused to answer the question, telling host David Gregory it’s anyone’s guess which party will ultimately control Congress after November.

"If the election was held today, it'd be a pretty good election," Cornyn said.