Wrapping Up The 111

The 111th Congress has been gaveled to a close, and looking back on the last two years, Obama and the Democrats did score some massive legislative wins.  The President remarked on the last two years yesterday.

“We are not doomed to endless gridlock,” Mr. Obama said.

Speaking to reporters before leaving for a 10-day vacation in Hawaii, Mr. Obama hailed the flurry of accomplishments, including Wednesday’s approval of a new nuclear treaty with Russia.

He called the treaty “the most significant arms control agreement in more than two decades” and the top national security priority of the first half of his presidency.

“With this treaty our inspectors will also be back on the ground with Russian nuclear bases,” Mr. Obama said. He called the 71-26 vote a “powerful signal to the world.”

But Mr. Obama rejected an opportunity to gloat about the successes of the past several weeks by declaring himself the “comeback kid,” telling a reporter that the results are “not a victory for me. It’s a victory for the American people.”


In fact, the president appeared to go out of his way to suggest that Americans would see from him more of the kinds of compromises that led him to cut a deal with Republicans on the extension of tax cuts for the middle class and the wealthy.

“A lot of folks in this time predicted that after the midterm elections, Washington would be headed for more partisanship and more gridlock,” Mr. Obama said. Instead, he said, Washington politicians decided that it was time to find common ground.

“That’s a message that I will take to heart in the new year, and I hope my Democratic and Republican friends will do the same,” he said.

So, hope you appreciated the good times.  I assure you come January, the same people who said Obama didn't do enough will be happy for his veto pen.