Obama en conférence de presse: en mode attaque!

Fort d'une victoire plus franche que ne le prévoyaient les experts, le Président Obama semblait très sûr de lui hier. Je me demandais qu'elle attitude il adopterait face à une Chambre des représentants majoritairement républicaine, viserait-il le compromis en tenant un discours plus modéré ou provoquerait-il la confrontation en affirmant clairement ses objectifs? Il ne fut pas question que de budget et de taxes, mais Obama s'est montré particulièrement vigoureux. Une bonne stratégie politique si on considère que les membres de la Chambre des représentants sont particulièrement impopulaires dans les sondages. De plus, les représentants remettent leurs sièges en jeu dès 2014. La population pourrait cette fois choisir de "punir" les républicains et peut-être redonner à Obama la majorité démocrate dans les deux chambres. Un pari drôlement intéressant.

 "Everyone was waiting to see if President Obama would be fiery and combative on Wednesday at his first post-election news conference — specifically on how tough a stand he would take on the so-called fiscal-cliff talks. And, as it transpired, the president who stood before reporters was nearly unrecognizable from the President Obama who, for four years, clung to a misguided belief in a postpartisan Washington where reasonable people sit down to work out solutions.

 After a few days of public dancing around by members of Congress on the fiscal-cliff talks, the most important, immediate thing Mr. Obama did was to be unequivocal about his bottom-line position: the Bush tax cuts for the middle class should be extended right now, with the rest allowed to expire, and then he is willing to talk about closing tax loopholes, and tax reform and spending cuts.

What I’m not going to do is to extend Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest 2 percent that we can’t afford and, according to economists, will have the least positive impact on our economy,” Mr. Obama said. After the campaign, Mr. Obama said, “this shouldn’t be a surprise to anybody,” noting that more Americans said they favored a tax increase on the rich than actually voted for him.

 Mr. Obama was at his most fiery and combative when he was asked about the killings at the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya, and a threat by Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham to block him if he decides to nominate Susan Rice, the ambassador to the United Nations, to be secretary of state in his second term. Republicans have been attacking Ms. Rice for saying five days after the killings that they may have grown out of a spontaneous protest over an anti-Islamic video.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/15/opinion/standing-tougher.html?_r=0