Advertisements

President Obama delivered a message to Congressional Republicans during an interview before the Super Bowl. He is not going to concede anything to them because they won a midterm election

Video:

Advertisements

The interview took place in the White House kitchen with the president in shirt sleeves. This was a much different setting from previous Super Bowl interviews, and it was impossible not to notice that the president was much more relaxed. With the economy growing and his approval ratings surging, Obama looked like a president who is finally out from under the weight of the economic collapse that he inherited.

Obama refused to pick a winner of the game but said that the game will be close.

The president used the big pre-Super Bowl audience to remind people of the progress that has been made while he is in office, “Well actually, nobody was doing an end zone dance. What we were talking about was the success that America’s had digging itself out of a really tough recession, and that’s a celebration of the American people. That’s not about politics. I was speaking about the fact that we have seen a faster drop in unemployment in the past year than we’ve seen in the past thirty years. We’ve seen that wages are starting to tick up again. We’ve seen housing recover, auto industry recover, energy production up, gas prices down. All of those things are good for the American people and that is worth us celebrating and now we’ve got to build on it by making sure that middle-class economics, one where it works for everybody that ends up being something that both parties can embrace.”

Savannah Guthrie trotted out the mainstream media’s favorite talking point that Obama should be more conciliatory because Republicans are in charge of Congress. The president responded by saying, “My job is to present the right ideas, and if Republicans think they’ve got better ideas, they should present them, but my job is not to trim my sails, and not tell the American people what we should be doing, pretending somehow that we don’t need better roads, or we don’t need more affordable college. One of the things I’ve learned over the last six years is that when I tell the American people very clearly what direction I think the country should go in sometimes people change their minds and even Republicans occasionally start agreeing with me. Although sometimes a little later than I would like.”

In other words, this president isn’t going to concede anything to Republicans because they won a midterm election. In fact, the president was suggesting that he is going to use his bully pulpit and executive powers to fight for what he thinks is right for the country.

The president still maintained his easy going manner, but it is clear that he is going to spend the last two years fighting for what he believes in. Boehner and McConnell better strap in because it looks they are in for a bumpy ride.