It appears that the curse of the two-term incumbent president’s party getting thrashed in US midterm elections will hold true when voters head to the polls on November 4. Despite the seemingly positive macroeconomic factors that supporters of President Obama and his party can point to, polls tracking the odds of a Republican takeover of the Senate have been ticking upwards over the past few weeks, with Nate Silver’s FiveThiryEight model currently standing at 73% and the Washington Post even more confident at 96% odds that the Republicans will win a majority.