The Hill News

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs doubled down on Friday on his election prediction, saying Democrats would keep the House and the Senate.

Gibbs said that Democrats were running stronger campaigns right now than Republicans, and that, despite having previously said there was "no doubt" the GOP could win the majority, Democrats would maintain theirs.

"I think it's a fairly simple choice come November," Gibbs said on "Good Morning America" on ABC. "I think Democrats will be successful, and we'll keep the House and the Senate.

Gibbs had previously backtracked off of his words cautioning that Republicans could be successful in their midterm efforts, an admission that angered many Democratic leaders in Congress.

But Democrats have also been working furiously to protect their majorities, bracing for a tough election cycle this fall with the added competition from freer corporate spending this year. The House Democrats' campaig! n committee has already reserved airtime for the final two weeks of the campaign, and plan an aggressive August strategy seeking to fight back against Republicans.

Gibbs, like those other Democrats, framed the choice facing voters as being between Obama's policies and the previous policies sought under President George W. Bush and last decade's Republican-controlled Congress.

"I think right now Democrats are running better campaigns than the Republicans are," he said. "I think this November is going to come down, quite frankly, to a choice: do you want to continue to move forward and make progress as we have in the Obama administration, or do you want to go back to the economic policies that got us into this mess."

The press secretary also rejected the notion that a GOP-controlled House or Senate might be better for the country, by forcing Democrats and Republicans to come to the bargaining table in a more concrete way.

"Nobody h! ere at the White House believes that. I think this president h! as a pla n for getting this country back on its feet again," he said. "[H]e hopes that come next November and next year when we swear in the new Congress that there are a majority of those that support that agenda."