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Former president Barack Obama told Democrats to stop obsessing over 'the latest crazy thing' Donald Trump does and instead focus their energy on issues that impact voters most directly - like inflation and gas prices. Obama offered his advice about Trump, who continues to tease the possibility of running for president again in 2024, during an interview with Pod Save America that aired exclusively on SiriusXM’s Progress Channel Friday night. 'We spend enormous amounts of time and energy and resources pointing out the latest crazy thing he said, or how rude or mean some of these Republican candidates behaved,' Obama...

MSNBC's Chuck Todd said Tuesday that based on past metrics of job approval and the American people's impression of the country's direction, President Biden and Democrats could be heading into the midterm in "shellacking territory," such as what was seen during the 2010 midterms during former President Obama's first term in the White House.

[snip]After a closed-door meeting, some of Pelosi's supporters said it was time for some serious soul-searching in the Democratic Party. "We just had a shellacking. We just got a shellacking last Tuesday. We got an unexpected defeat and we've got to recalibrate it and decide how we go forward," said Rep. G.K. Butterfield, chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus and a Pelosi supporter. "It's just like death. There are difference stages of grief you go through."

President Obama opened a White House meeting with congressional leaders by calling for an end Washington’s gridlock, arguing that was the message behind Tuesday’s Democratic drubbing. Speaking from the White House dining room, where he was flanked by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on one side and Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on the other, Obama said the midterm result demonstrated that voters were “frustrated by the gridlock in Washington.” “They’d like to see more cooperation,” the president said. “And I think all of us have the responsibility, me in particular, to try to make that happen. And so, this...

Krauthammer: [Obama] played as the puzzled observer. He was asked about the meaning of the election, and he said “I’ll leave to others the reading of tea leaves.” Was this really a subtle result? Was this sort of complicated and nuanced? This was the worst wall-to-wall, national, unmistakable, unequivocal shellacking that you will ever see in a midterm election, and it happened on just about every level. You’ve got in the House the Republicans now have the largest majority since 1929.

President Obama on Wednesday acknowledged that Republicans had "obviously" had a good midterm election, but expressed confidence that voters still support his ideas. In his first public comments since his party's thumping in the midterms, Obama said he believed the message sent by voters was similar to the one they've sent in the last few elections: Voters want Washington to get things done. But the president hailed his handling of the economy, suggested he's going full steam ahead with plans to take executive action on immigration and made a point of noting that two-thirds of voters didn't take part in...

[October 2 /12]The story lately has been about over-sampling of Democrats in polls, leading to an orthodox media conclusion that President Obama has opened a large lead over challenger, Mitt Romney. I have a question, however.In 2010 the Republicans decimated the Democrats in what President Obama termed a “shellacking”. That election was fought based on voter approval of Obama’s first two years of policies. Well, now it is 2012, and President Obama’s approval rating is identical to that of late 2010: Obama’s Approval Rating Mirrors 2010. So, tell me how this won’t translate into another “shellacking”?We are constantly reminded that...

Friend -- I've been in Washington for almost 40 years. I've seen a lot of Congresses come and go. But I can't remember a group of lawmakers who accomplished more than the folks who just wrapped up their work. With their help, we repealed "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and ratified the START arms control treaty. We passed a new law to rein in the abuses on Wall Street and protect consumers. We reformed the health care system and passed the Recovery Act to get our economy growing again. But do you know why all that happened? Because people like you...

If you had your butt kicked in an athletic contest -- or an election -- you would think it would warrant a long look in the mirror. You might start thinking about what you could have done differently during the past contest, and perhaps you would reflect about your strengths and weaknesses, and those of your opponent. Back when I wrestled in high school, I had a teammate who was both outstanding on the mat and an exemplary student. I remember that on one rare occasion, he was soundly beaten. I will never forget his bruised-ego comment to me right...

Obama delivers only hot air By Donald Kirk SEOUL – Theodore Roosevelt, a great American president with a clearly imperialist agenda, uttered one of the most famous lines in US history in 1901 when he advised a crowd, "Speak softly and carry a big stick". These days, US President Barack Obama seems to have gotten that aphorism reversed. He speaks a lot but doesn't seem to be carrying a big stick. That was the impression he gave after winding up his 11-day Asian odyssey in Japan at a tepid weekend gathering of Pacific rim leaders banded together in the Asia...

After presiding over the worst Congressional House lost in over 40 years, the loss of 60 plus seats, Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi has decided she wishes to be Minority Leader. In any other profession, such a devastating loss or shellacking caused by the company’s leadership would warrant the Head to be fired. Yet that doesn’t seem to deter Pelosi. Reality seldom does in Pelosi’s case. Instead, Pelosi wishes to throw a party in celebration of her accomplishments and then take up where she left off. (see story) What she has accomplished is tantamount to a CEO building one...

This is the message President Obama heard from the American people in the "shellacking" he said he took on Tuesday night: The American people don't want him and the Republicans to "relitigate" the fights of the past two years. If he truly believes this, he is a one-term president and shouldn't even bother trying to run again in 2012. Elections are precisely moments when we "relitigate" the recent past and make our judgment about how it went. If he doesn't understand this very basic point, he's toast. The American people "relitigated" the last two years on Tuesday night, and found...

More Print Less than a day after the Republicans made historic gains in Congress by riding a tidal wave of voter discontent, President Obama said this afternoon that the result signaled Americans are frustrated with the sluggish pace of economic recovery. “I think I have to take direct responsibility that we have not made as much progress as we need to make,” he told reporters at the White House. Obama said he was doing "a whole lot of reflecting" following heavy losses across the country just two years after he took office, a repudiation by voters of the president's policies....

Japanese news today over here (newspapers above the fold, magazines, non-stop TV networks) are filled to the brim with news of Mr. Obama's humiliating defeat at the hands of the Republicans.Many of this is bringing Japanese up to speed as to how unpopular Mr. Obama really is, as for the last two years by and large they perpetuated the image of him being successful and popular (mostly in order to sell books and English instruction tapes using his speeches). What a rude awakening.Well, my favorite title is from this morning's Hokkaido Shimbun: Essentially: "Obama Agenda For "Change" Delivered Strong...

Obama Humbled By Election 'Shellacking'By Liz Halloran Updated: 5 hours ago A sober President Obama acknowledged Wednesday that he took "a shellacking" in the midterm election, and that his once high-flying relationship with the American voter had hit rocky times. "There is an inherent danger in being in the White House and being in the bubble," said the president, whose party on Tuesday lost control of the House in an historic Republican wave. The GOP is expected to gain at least 60 seats, the biggest increase in more than seven decades. Democrats barely clung to their Senate majority. "The responsibilities...