Republican's have won big. They gained seats in the House, taken control of the Senate and won big in Governor's races. Another big winner was women, so much for the war on women attack that the Democrats tried to label the Republican's with.
Republican's have two paths to take, they can block the President, or work with him. I hope that they will follow the path that Newt Gingrich took when they ran on the Contract With America. The exit polls were clear, American's don't approve of Obama and want change.
Bill Clinton is often credited with passing Welfare Reform. What is left out many times is that prior to the 94 elections that brought Republican's to power he twice vetoed Welfare Reform. However, congress worked in getting a bill to the President that he would sign.
In this current election climate Coal is a huge factor. Coal is one of the cheapest forms of energy to produce and states that rely on Coal that was a huge issue. The Keystone Pipeline and the desire to get off our addiction to oil from the Middle East is another issue.
Immigration is front and center with recent news stories such as the children showing up at our border and instead of sending them home to their parents they shipped them to different towns a few of which flat out refused to accept them. Then the President hints at pushing Amnesty through via Executive Order and you have a hot button issue.
Now realistically, the Republican's flat out dropped the ball on Immigration reform in the years when Bush was in office and had control of Congress. They failed. There is no other interpretation.
Gingrich on the other hand, along side Senator Bob Dole who ran the Senate, decided that instead of blocking the President, instead worked with him. It wasn't always smooth, but one thing is for sure, Bills passed the House and the Senate. In fact that was part of Contract With America. They promised specific action on their first 100 days in office. They delivered.
American's want energy reform, American's want immigration reform. Those are two issues that Congress needs to focus on. While some like Senator Ted Cruz want to repeal Obamacare that is a dog that just won't hunt. It is true that American's on the whole are not happy with the Affordable Care Act, they do not want it repealed. What is doable, is fixing some of the problems.
Republican's need to work with President Obama and pass bills that he will sign. Just as they did in the 90's, and at times President Clinton had to be dragged kicking and screaming to the table, but he came to the table.
Finally, if I were Obama I would learn from President Clinton. He must work with Congress. Personally I don't think he will. Clinton had a re-election to worry about, Obama does not. Clinton also knew how to be a team player and continues to be invited to stump for Democrat candidates. Obama does not have the reputation for compromise or cooperation that Clinton still has to this day.
Republican's can only do so much, if Obama sits on his thumbs and refuses to work with Congress it will only hurt the Democrats in 2016.
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