President Obama did his best to accentuate the positive in looking back on the year, talking up recent economic gains and the idea of compromise with Republicans while pledging to continue issuing executive actions and wielding his veto pen to protect his top priorities.
Setting aside his lame-duck status, deep losses in the midterm elections and a series of foreign-policy crises that contributed to his sagging poll numbers, the president said the U.S. economy has come roaring back this year and America is in a period of “resurgence.”
“Pick any metric you want,” he told reporters at the White House Friday. “America’s resurgence is real.”
“I’m energized, I’m excited about the prospects for the next couple of years,” he said. “And I’m certainly not going to be stopping for a minute to make life better for ordinary Americans.”
Since the election, Obama said he has worked with Republicans in Congress to pass a massive spending bill that contained some provisions he disliked but was a deal he could accept. The areas of common ground, he said, boded well for future compromise on issues such as increasing U.S. exports, simplifying the tax system and rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure.
But when it comes to issuing additional executive actions and protecting his top priorities such as Obamacare, he vowed to use every tool at his disposal.
“If Republicans seek to take health care away from people who just got it, they will meet stiff resistance from me,” he said. “If they try to water down consumer protections that we put in place in the aftermath of the financial crisis, I will say no. And I’m confident I’ll be able to uphold vetoes of those types of provisions.”
The White House laid the messaging groundwork ahead of the press conference, circulating a blog written by Obama’s senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer in which he said 2014 was a “great year of progress” for the president and the progressive agenda.
As proof, the blog pointed to the best job growth since the 1990s, the millions of Americans who signed up for Obamacare, proposed environmental restrictions on power plants and legal relief for more than 4 million illegal immigrants.
Recognizing that the statement flew in the face of the general Washington consensus about Obama’s year of debilitating setbacks and lame-duck status, Pfeiffer pleaded with readers to “stay with me — even if you’re distracted by the sound of heads exploding across the Beltway punditocracy.”
Democrats, who have spent the weeks after the election in a circular firing squad, ascribing blame for the losses to one faction of the party or another, appeared energized by the message.
“I think Dan is spot on,” Erik Smith, a senior adviser for message development on the Obama 2012 campaign, told the Washington Examiner. “Too often we’re distracted by the day-to-day skirmishes and meaningless fights that obsess Washington and by extension the media.”
“It’s like an impressionist painting. Standing too close to it, all people see is a bunch of dots. But take a few steps back and get perspective.”
Republicans immediately took exception with the slow pace of the economic recovery and Obama’s threat to continue circumventing Congress and issuing more executive actions they view as unlawful.
“Our economy is slowly improving, but too many Americans are still asking, where are the jobs? Or working harder just to keep their heads above water,” said Michael Steel, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner. “The president needs to listen to the American people, who want us to work together to get things done, rather than focusing on unilateral actions that stretch or exceed his constitutional authority.”
Others pointed out more dismal economic signs.
Republican strategist Ron Bonjean noted that China has overtaken the U.S. as the world’s largest economy, unemployment remains too high and health care insurance premiums are still rising for millions of Americans while their access to care and medicine has declined.
“Because he lost the election, President Obama has chosen to go around Congress on issues like immigration and climate change because he chooses not to work with Congress to really get things done,” Bonjean said. “This is hardly a year for the White House to celebrate.”
Still, Obama appeared genuinely emboldened and enthused about tackling next year’s challenges without another election hanging over his head.
Fresh from issuing a surprise executive action this week lifting some trade and travel restrictions on Cuba in the hopes of undoing 50 years of history and normalizing trade relations with the island nation, he said he would continue to take these types of unilateral steps when “I see a big problem, and the opportunity to help the American people.”
“My presidency is entering the fourth quarter; interesting stuff happens in the fourth quarters, and I’m looking forward to it,” he said.
But first, he said, he was going to enjoy a much-needed “time-out” in Hawaii.
“And now I’m going to go on vacation,” he concluded. “Mele Kalikimaka. Mahalo.”
