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Obama Stays the Course Despite Midterm Beat-Down

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WASHINGTON -- One day after his Democratic allies fell out of power on Capitol Hill, President Barack Obama responded to Republicans' election victory with some faint praise.

"Obviously Republicans had a good night and they deserve credit for running good campaigns," the president told reporters Wednesday.

But if you're expecting the commander in chief to announce a major change of course, prepare to be disappointed.

The president was resolute, defiant even as he defended his record and administration, despite his low approval ratings.

"It doesn't make me mopey. It energizes me," Obama said.

He said he'll look for opportunities to work with Republicans, but when pressed, he showed few signs of changing his arm's-length approach to the GOP.

"What I am going to do as president is make sure I'm advancing what I think is best for the country," Obama said.

He also doubled down on his plans to craft an executive order on immigration -- a move sure to sour any bipartisan goodwill.

"It's like waving a red flag in front of a bull to say if you guys don't do what I want, I'm gonna do it on my own," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said. "And the president's done that on Obamacare, he's done it on immigration, and he's threatening to do it again."

The future Senate majority leader said he wants to make the Senate productive again and his fellow Republicans want to address immigration reform through legislation.

Obama said that if they do, he'll withdraw his executive action.

"If in fact there is a great eagerness on the part of Republicans to tackle a broken immigration system, then they have every opportunity to do it," the president said.

Meanwhile, polls showed how values voters, including evangelicals, helped propel Republicans to power on Capitol Hill.

A Public Opinion Strategies survey shows one out of every three voters was a conservative Christian.

"It's larger than the African-American vote, the union vote, and the gay vote combined. And so I think the message is there's no Republican wave in 2014 and there is no conceivable Republican majority in the United States without this constituency as the cornerstone of that majority," Ralph Reed, chairman of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, told CBN News.

But Republicans may not stay on top long if they don't find a remedy for the main issue that sent voters to the polls: lingering economic pain.

Americans plagued by the economic recession sent the president to the White House in 2008.

Six years later, exit polls show many of those same Americans feel left behind economically -- and those voters supported Republicans 2 to 1.

"Let me make it clear, there will be no government shutdowns and no default on the national debt," McConnell said.

But as long as the president occupies the White House, there will be an ongoing showdown over Obamacare, with McConnell promising to try to get rid of key parts of the unpopular law.

"I think we will be addressing that issue in a variety of different ways, and the president (is) saying he'll be on the other side of that fight," the Kentucky lawmaker said.

"There are certainly some lines I'm going to draw. Repeal of the law I won't sign," Obama said.

So, while there's talk now of bipartisanship, there are also signs the deep divide between the two sides isn't likely to go away in the last two years of the Obama presidency.

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About The Author

Jennifer
Wishon

As Senior Washington Correspondent for CBN News, Jennifer covers the intersection of faith and politics - often producing longer format stories that dive deep into the most pressing issues facing Americans today. A 20-year veteran journalist, Jennifer has spent most of her career covering politics, most recently at the White House as CBN's chief White House Correspondent covering the Obama and Trump administrations. She's also covered Capitol Hill along with a slew of major national stories from the 2008 financial crisis to the 2020 coronavirus pandemic and every election in between. Jennifer