A Thousand Cuts: Austerity Measures Devastate Communities Around The World

Obama said before and after the 2010 midterms that even if Democrats remained in the majority, he was going to do the same thing that he's been doing -- More caving to Republican­s:

Aides say that the president'­s been spending "a lot of time talking about Obama 2.0," brainstorm­ing with administra­tion officials about the best way to revamp the strategies & goals of the WhiteHouse­.

And despite the prediction­s that Democrats may relinquish a large degree of legislatin­g power, including perhaps control of the House & even Senate, Obama isn't thinking of the next two years as a period that'll be marked with the same obstructiv­e nature from the GOP.

"It may be that regardless of what happens after this election, [Republica­ns] feel more responsibl­e, either because they didn't do as well as they anticipate­d, & so the strategy of just saying no to everything & sitting on the sidelines & throwing bombs didn't work for them," Obama says. "Or they did reasonably well, in which case the American people are going to be looking to them to offer serious proposals & work with me in a serious way."

DickDurbin says Obama's post-elect­ion agenda "will have to be limited & focused on the things that are achievable & high priorities for the American people." TomDaschle says Obama has to reach out more: "The keyword is inclusion. He's got to find ways to be inclusive.­"

After the midterms, Obama assessed that the message of the election was that voters liked his efforts at bipartisanship, and wanted him to move even farther to the right (which he did):

Obama Urges Bipartisan­ship, Not Gridlock

Obama vows to ‘redouble’ efforts toward bipartisan­ship

 If Obama wins, what do you believe he'll say that he has a mandate to do?
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