Tough road ahead for Obama

Republicans seize Senate, may seek to repeal Obamacare, stall key nominations

WASHINGTON: Democrat Alison Grimes, who ran for the senate from Kentucky, refused to say till the last if she voted for Barack Obama. She also ran ads saying she was no Obama, a rifle by her side. Yet she lost. The president was not on the ballot but, as he has himself said, his policies were, and, therefore, he will find himself blamed for his party’s devastation Tuesday night.

As election results came in, Obama’s aides let it be known, according to local media reports, he didn’t feel personally repudiated, not after being kept on the sidelines. Obama has invited a bipartisan group of newly elected leaders to a meeting at the White House on Friday, which could set the tone for the next two years, confrontation or cooperation.

Republican leaders have already let their intentions be known in a string of post-victory television interviews and appearances starting later Tuesday night. “I think we would repeal Obamacare and replace it with a healthcare system that empowers the individual to have a relationship with the doctor not with the gover nment,” said Republican House majority leader Kevin McCarthy. Mitch McConnell, who beat Grimes and is likely to be the next majority leader in the Senate, hinted at a similar course of action — attacking Obama’s healthcare and min- ing policies. There will inevitably be push back on his nominations. The administration will try and push through as many as possible, including a replacement for attorney general Eric Holder, in the lameduck period (until January, when the new Congress takes over). But things are not likely to be any worse than before. “The last Congress was the most do-nothing Congress in the modern history of the United States,” said Allan Lichtman of American University, adding, “accomplish- ing virtually nothing, not even much sound and fury.”