Despite electoral drubbing, Obama refuses to cede ground

After a stunning electoral drubbing, President Barack Obama promised to cooperate with an energised Republican opposition, but without ceding ground on key issues like his signature health law and immigration reforms.

"To those of you who voted, I hear you," Obama said at a press conference in the East Room of the White House Wednesday after the "Republicans had a good night" as he put it. "To those who didn't vote, "I hear you too."

In his first remarks after the verdict that saw the Republicans gaining their biggest majority in the House since World War II and wresting back control of the Senate after eight years, the president gave no sign of reshaping his agenda in the new situation.

Obama said he would seek compromises in the coming months on trade deals, tax changes, infrastructure spending and an immigration overhaul.

"But what I'm not going to do is just wait," he said vowing to use his executive authority for immigration reform.

"What stands out to me is that the message Americans sent yesterday is one you've sent for several elections in a row now," he said in an open letter to people later.

"You expect the people you elect to work as hard as you do. You expect us to focus on your ambitions -- not ours -- and you want us to get the job done. Period."

"I plan on spending every moment of the next two years rolling up my sleeves and working as hard as I can for the American people," Obama said.

Obama also reached out to Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell, who is in line to become the next Senate majority leader, saying "You know, actually, I would enjoy having some Kentucky bourbon with Mitch McConnell."

During a press conference in Kentucky, McConnell urged Obama to follow Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, who built domestic legacies despite often having to deal with a Congress controlled by opposing parties.

McConnell said those two presidents are "good examples of accepting the government you have rather than fantasising about the government you wished you had."

He also warned Obama against acting on immigration on his own, saying "It's like waving a red flag in front of a bull."

Commenting on the "President's offer" to Republicans, the influential New York Times noted that Obama had refused "to submit to the Republican narrative that his presidency effectively ended with the midterm elections."

Asking the President not to give in to Republican demands on issues like health care and immigration reform as he had vowed, it said, "Voters said they wanted the two parties to stop bickering and work harder, not erase the progress made in the last six years."

The Washington Post, on the other hand suggested, "Obama should give Republicans time to make good on their promises," including on immigration.

"The cost would not be very high; holding back a provocative executive action does not preclude the president from issuing one in six months' or a year's time, should Republican leaders fail to make good on their conciliatory tone," it said.

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)