President Obama has received lots of tough criticism over the past year, and critics question whether he'll adapt a la Bill Clinton from the thrashing that he and his party received yesterday across the country in losing 60 seats in the House of Representatives.
But there is no doubt that through his body language he had the look of a beaten man, which he is on the day after the 2010 midterm election.
In reflecting on why the American public seemed to be rejecting his agenda in voting out so many House Democrats, the President said though his administration had enormous challenges to deal with in inheriting an economy already going through a major recession and that there's been progress, "people aren't feeling that progress. I've got to take direct responsibility that we haven't made as much progress as needed."
Obama acknowledged that all the government involvement because of the dire situation with the economy was "an emergency situation," and was never part of his original agenda when he took over in January of 2009 (meaning the bailouts of AIG and the car companies, for example). "I'm sympathetic to those who thoght this was a bunch of overreach."
Obama said that he wanted to work with the Republicans on issues like earmark reform, and obviously, working on a plan to maintain tax cuts for at least everybody making under $200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for families (the GOP wants to maintain those tax cuts for everyone).
But even though his critics say that the entire wrath of the public had to do with health care reform law, Obama showed no desire to turn back the legislation, saying that if half the people are against the law, that means the other half do support it.
This article appears in Oct 28 – Nov 3, 2010.