Political Wire

Obama Feels Liberated by Loss of Democratic Senate

November 10, 2014 at 7:56 am EST By Taegan Goddard 16 Comments

“The morning after Democrats’ thrashing in the midterm elections, President Barack Obama unexpectedly dropped by his senior staff’s daily meeting to buck up his exhausted and defeated team,” the AP reports.

“Rather than bemoan his party’s loss of control in the Senate, Obama made an impassioned case for what he saw as the opportunities ahead and argued that his team still ran the most powerful institution in the world. He would echo those sentiments hours later in a post-election news conference, displaying a sunny outlook that ran counter to the electorate’s gloomy mood.”

“White House officials say Obama’s optimism reflects a president who feels liberated by even the limited prospects for striking deals with a Republican Congress and relieved about shedding the narrow Democratic majority that would have guaranteed Washington stayed locked in a stalemate.”

Huffington Post: Big review planned by Democrats in the wake of losses

Obama Blames Himself for Midterm Losses

November 9, 2014 at 7:59 pm EST By Taegan Goddard 17 Comments

“Just days after his party was routed in the midterm elections, President Obama said that he and his White House team had not succeeded in effectively selling the benefits of his policies to the American people, calling it a ‘failure of politics’ that he must change in the final two years of his presidency,” the New York Times reports.

Said Obama: “It’s not enough just to build a better mousetrap. People don’t automatically come beating to your door. We’ve got to sell it. We’ve got to reach out to the other side and, where possible, persuade.”

The Stranger

November 8, 2014 at 7:22 am EST By Taegan Goddard 3 Comments

Out next week: The Stranger: Barack Obama in the White House by Chuck Todd.

Wall Street Journal: “With an informal, digressive writing style, Mr. Todd gamely sets out to produce an answer to that perhaps unanswerable question. The Stranger should not be confused with the deeply reported books already written on the president by the likes of David Remnick, Bob Woodward and Jonathan Alter. Mr. Todd seems to have gathered his material predominantly for use in his on-the-air news analyses, with the result that his interviews are driven less by the authorial desire to psychoanalyze than the pundit’s need to respond to the topic du jour. That said, he has harvested a bounty of fascinating anecdotes as the fruit of his access to the Obama White House.”

Running Away from Obama Didn’t Work

November 7, 2014 at 10:29 am EST By Taegan Goddard 68 Comments

First Read: “For all Southern Democrats’ efforts to distance themselves from Obama – (ie refusing to say whether they voted for the president, pushing pro-gun and pro-coal policies) it’s notable that NONE of the Democrats in ’14 ran significantly better in the South (including West Virginia and Kentucky) than Obama did in ’12. And in some cases, they were worse.”

Obama Says He’ll Listen to Those Who Didn’t Vote

November 7, 2014 at 10:24 am EST By Taegan Goddard 39 Comments

“President Obama did something extraordinary, perhaps unprecedented, in his post-election news conference Wednesday: He claimed a mandate on behalf of voters who didn’t vote,” Byron York reports.

Said Obama: “To everyone who voted, I want you to know that I hear you. To the two-thirds of voters who chose not to participate in the process yesterday, I hear you, too.”

The Least Political President?

November 7, 2014 at 6:08 am EST By Taegan Goddard 7 Comments

“President Obama looked almost relieved after Tuesday’s election blowout. A man who has been perhaps the least political president in modern U.S. history doesn’t have to worry about elections anymore,” David Ignatius reports.

If Not Obama’s Policies, Was It His Leadership?

November 6, 2014 at 7:22 am EST By Taegan Goddard 47 Comments

President Obama and his aides “are arguing that the stinging defeat Democrats suffered at the polls Tuesday wasn’t a rejection of the policies he’s advocated over the past six years, citing evidence of popular support for his agenda even as voters turned against his party,” Politico reports.

“But that line of argument might not be the best one to boost Obama’s post-midterm standing, as it leads to a conclusion even more uncomfortable for the White House: that voters were instead passing judgment on Obama himself.”

Obama Has Faced Historic Congressional Losses

November 5, 2014 at 1:14 pm EST By Taegan Goddard 35 Comments

“President Obama has lost nearly 70 seats in the House since taking office and more seats in midterm elections than any president since Harry Truman,” The Hill reports.

“Democrats have suffered a net loss of at least 69 House seats since 2008, with the possibility that Republicans could pick up even more seats as the final midterm races are called. Senate Democrats have not fared much better, losing a net of at least 13 seats since Obama took office.”

Obama Now Faces What Reagan, Clinton and Bush Did

November 5, 2014 at 11:58 am EST By Taegan Goddard 13 Comments

Neil Irwin: “A president in the final two years of an eight-year run in the White House. Congress held by an opposing party that loathes the occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. A staff that is depleted and exhausted by six-plus years of governing.”

“That is the situation that Barack Obama will face in the final two years of his presidency, with, we learned Tuesday, a Congress now controlled by Republicans in both houses. But it is not particularly uncommon. Three times in the last 30 years it has occurred: with Ronald Reagan in 1987 and 1988, Bill Clinton in 1999 and 2000, and George W. Bush in 2007 and 2008.”

Obama to Discuss Midterm Election Results

November 5, 2014 at 7:47 am EST By Taegan Goddard 80 Comments

President Obama will hold a news conference this afternoon, “facing the White House press corps one day after Democrats were blown out in the midterm elections,” The Hill reports.

“The president, aides say, is anxious to get to work, telling staff he wants them to make the most out of every day of his remaining time in office. And the administration is hoping to telegraph a willingness to work with new Republican leadership in light of Tuesday’s stinging rebuke.”

In 2006, President George W. Bush called the wave sweeping Republicans out of office a “thumping.” In 2010, President Obama called a similar landslide election a “shellacking.”

What will he call this year’s election?

Making It All About Obama

November 5, 2014 at 7:36 am EST By Taegan Goddard 17 Comments

Washington Post: “From the outset of the campaign, Republicans had a simple plan: Don’t make mistakes, and make it all about Obama, Obama, Obama. Every new White House crisis would bring a new Republican ad. And every Democratic incumbent would be attacked relentlessly for voting with the president 97 or 98 or 99 percent of the time.”

New York Times: “Tensions between the Democratic Senate candidates and the president kept bubbling up throughout the campaign. It did not help that the Democrats defending their seats felt that Mr. Obama had refused to come to terms with how damaged his political brand had become in their states, and how perilous his embrace was.”

Obama Fights for Relevance

November 5, 2014 at 6:44 am EST By Taegan Goddard 3 Comments

New York Times: “The Republican capture of the Senate culminated a season of discontent for the president — and may yet open a period of even deeper frustration. Sagging in the polls and unwelcome in most competitive races across the country, Mr. Obama bristled as the last campaign that would influence his presidency played out while he sat largely on the sidelines. He privately complained that it should not be a judgment on him.”

“But in a hyperactive, deeply polarized time in history, Mr. Obama now faces a daunting challenge in reasserting his relevance in a capital that will soon enough shift its attention to the battle to succeed him. If the hope-and-change phase of his presidency is long over, he wants at least to produce a period of progress and consolidation to complete his time in the White House.”

Wall Street Journal: “The president now finds himself seeking to rebound with a public that, however they voted Tuesday, is deeply dissatisfied with his leadership.”