Obama attempts to chart new course

US President Barack Obama yesterday sought to move past the political thumping in congressional elections as he called together Democrat and Republican leaders later this month, hoping to set a new course.

The fresh bid for bipartisanship, however, drew a sharp response from the Republican leader in the Senate who said the party wanted to make sure Obama only served one term.

Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell took to the podium at the conservative Heritage Foundation to emphasise again that Republicans were determined to defeat Obama in the 2012 election.

He said the only way Republicans in Congress can achieve their goals is “to put someone in the White House who won’t veto” a repeal of Obama’s healthcare reform, spending cuts and shrinking the government.

While Republicans gained enormous strength by taking control of the House, they still are the minority in the Senate, meaning that measures adopted in the lower chamber will likely never come to a vote in the Senate.

In addition, Obama retains his veto power on all legislation and the Republicans have insufficient votes to override.

The November 18 meeting, which calls together McConnell, House Speaker-in-waiting John Boehner, outgoing Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate majority leader Harry Reid, will be closely watched for signs of civility between Obama and his two frequent Republican antagonists.

As the Republican leadership and Obama circle one another looking for advantage in what is sure to be a testy two years between the Congress and White House, exit polling of voters offered deeper clues into what drove Americans when they cast ballots on Tuesday, producing the biggest power shift in the House in 70 years.

For example, polls for the Associated Press showed Americans aged 65 and older and political independents – two of the most critical US voting blocs – led the way in the drubbing administered to Obama’s Democrats.

Obama acknowledged the Democrats took a “shellacking,” and the president blamed himself for the weak economic recovery that he said was the root of the poor results.

But exit polling painted a different picture.

Seniors are the most reliable group of American voters and 59% of them voted Republican in the House contests. They said Obama’s healthcare overhaul was the driving factor, with more than half of that group saying the measure should be repealed.

The independents said they did not like the way Obama was handling his job and took it out on Democrats, voting Republican as a group for the first time since 1998. More than half said the president’s policies harmed the country.

Tellingly, voters 65 and older were major supporters of the ultra-conservative tea party movement, the loose amalgam of organisations that fuelled the angry reject of the Democrats with calls for smaller government and lower taxes.