“I privately talk to senators, and they’re just baffled. All the things that people were seriously upset with the administration about, it seems the president is doubling down on them.”

— Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), quoted by the Washington Post, on a newly-combative President Obama.

“In the days since the U.S. midterm elections, President Obama has begun grooming his legacy in ways that place him on a collision course not just with Republicans in Congress, but with his own Democratic Party,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“All of it appears designed to demonstrate his continued relevancy on the heels of an election that solidified his status as a politically weakened lame duck.”

Politico: Obama turns to McConnell to secure legacy

Peggy Noonan: “I have never seen a president in exactly the position Mr. Obama is, which is essentially alone. He’s got no one with him now. The Republicans don’t like him, for reasons both usual and particular: They have had no good experiences with him. The Democrats don’t like him, for their own reasons plus the election loss. Before his post-election lunch with congressional leaders, he told the press that he will judiciously consider any legislation, whoever sends it to him, Republicans or Democrats. His words implied that in this he was less partisan and more public-spirited than the hacks arrayed around him. It is for these grace notes that he is loved. No one at the table looked at him with colder, beadier eyes than outgoing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid , who clearly doesn’t like him at all. The press doesn’t especially like the president; in conversation they evince no residual warmth. This week at the Beijing summit there was no sign the leaders of the world had any particular regard for him. They can read election returns. They respect power and see it leaking out of him. If Mr. Obama had won the election they would have faked respect and affection.”

“President Obama emerged from last week’s midterm election rejected by voters, hobbled politically and doomed to a final two years in office suffering from early lame-duck syndrome. That, at least, was the consensus in both parties. No one seems to have told Mr. Obama,” the New York Times reports.

“In the 10 days since ‘we got beat,’ as he put it, by Republicans who captured the Senate and bolstered control over the House, Mr. Obama has flexed his muscles on immigration, climate change and the Internet, demonstrating that he still aspires to enact sweeping policies that could help define his legacy.”

New Yorker: “Once upon a time—about six years ago, to be precise—Obama was a feted celebrity in Washington, too. These days, it’s not quite like that, of course, and the President, once he gets home, will be frequently and painfully reminded of what has changed. But perhaps it’s a bit early to write him off. “

President Obama “has taken significant steps to the left since his party’s devastating losses in the midterm elections,” The Hill reports.

“In a surprise, he announced a major deal on climate change with China during a trip to Beijing Tuesday. That followed another unanticipated move — a Monday statement pressuring the Federal Communications Commission to adopt new net neutrality rules for the Internet. The moves are helping to rally a dispirited Democratic base while re-establishing Obama’s political leadership after he was sidelined during the midterms.”

Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) denied on MSNBC assertions made by Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) that Republicans were planning to impeach President Obama.

Said Cole: “No impeachment legislation is pending, none has been proposed. I know of no one who favors that as a course that’s in any leadership position.”

He added: “I think this is a Democratic fantasy, and I certainly don’t see it coming to pass.”

Elizabeth Drew: “It’s well understood around Washington that the president has a less than stellar collection of White House advisors and a weak national security staff in particular. New presidents without a lot of governing experience can make rookie mistakes, but six years on Obama continues to make them. And not just on foreign policy. He talked his way into a terrible predicament over whether he’d issue an executive order bypassing congressional inaction on immigration; his postponement of his original plan to issue these orders, announced early this summer, resulted in a significant drop in Hispanic support of the Democrats, which had been crucial to earlier Democratic victories in Colorado. (A Democrat senator said to me, ‘This is what you get when you have a drive-through president.’)”

“Within hours of landing here on Monday, President Obama took credit for the release of two Americans detained in North Korea, defended his decision to send more military trainers to Iraq, vowed to expand trade with Asia and unilaterally extended the life of U.S. visas held by Chinese students, businesspeople and tourists,” the Los Angeles Times reports.

“With the efficacy of his waning presidency in question, Obama began a weeklong trip to Asia and Australia seemingly bent on demonstrating the tools still at his disposal.”