With US mid-term elections turning the tide in favour of the Republicans, President Barack Obama appeared to seek common ground and work together with the rivals for America’s prosperity.
However the President struck a defiant note saying he wasn’t ready to wait and will “measure ideas not by whether they come from Democrats or Republicans, but by whether they work for the American people”.
Despite the chances being high of a rocky road ahead for him in his next two years as the President, Obama said he was ready to chart out a new course for America and was “eager to work with the new Congress to make the next two years as productive as possible”.
Both Obama and incoming Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell appeared to look forward to working together, however not without injecting a dash of defiance in the wake of differnces that would loom large and might manifest when the new Congress takes over in January with both the legislative chambers in control of the Republicans.
McConnell too denied a possibility of “being in perpetual conflict” with the Democrats and hoped to work with Obama on agreeable things like tax forms and trade agreements.
However, mocking the former Senate dominated by the Democrats, McConnell promised that the Republicans would have “a Senate that actually works”.”The Senate in the last few years basically doesn’t do anything,” he said. “We’re going to go back to work and actually pass legislation,” he told reporters in Kentucky.
Speaking at a news conference in the White House, Obama first of all addressed the voters who were apparently unhappy with his leadership and had gone to vote for the Republicans, saying, “I hear you”.
“As president, I have a unique responsibility to try and make this town work.. So, to everyone who voted, I want you to know that I hear you.”
However Obama seemed to downplay the Republicans triumph, glossing over it with a simple “Republicans had a good night” and appeared to defend his last few years as the President tenure by affirming how the US had progresses in last few years and vowed to do everything and give his best to during his final two years as the President.
“This country has made real progress since the crisis 6 years ago. More Americans are working. More Americans have health insurance…Manufacturing has grown; our deficits have shrunk; our dependence on foreign oil is down; our graduation rates are up,” asserted Obama.
