MSNBC: "With Democrats rising, next 2 years will be tough for lame-duck president" [View All]

[Human Torch]

Election leaves Bush to bob on blue wave
With Democrats rising, next 2 years will be tough for lame-duck president

ANALYSIS
By Alex Johnson
Reporter
MSNBC
Updated: 8:07 p.m. PT Nov 8, 2006



http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15626949/

A day after President Bush got what he called a “thumping” at the polls, the president reached across the political divide with a promise to work with Democrats, and the new House leadership returned the favor. But the traditional post-election comity belied inevitable confrontations over any number of hard issues, none more difficult than the course of the war in Iraq.

Almost 6 in 10 voters said in exit polls that they disapproved of the war, and Bush immediately made it plain that he got the message, offering up Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s head to victorious Democrats. That doesn’t mean, however, that he intends to capitulate to their demands for a dramatic change of strategy in Iraq, raising the prospect of two years of tense battles over war policy.

Several times at a news conference Wednesday, Bush declined the opportunity to declare that the nomination of former CIA Director Robert Gates to replace Rumsfeld meant he was taking a new course in Iraq. If confirmed by the Senate, he said, Gates would bring “a fresh perspective” and “great managerial experience” to the Pentagon, but the goal would remain the same.

“It’s very important that the people understand the consequences of failure,” Bush said. “And I have vowed to the country that we’re not going to fail. We’re not going to leave before the job is done.” That isn’t likely to sit well with newly emboldened Democratic congressional leaders. “Unfortunately, the course in Iraq cannot be changed solely by changing personnel,” Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., who would become majority leader if Democrat Jim Webb’s victory in Virginia survives a possible recount and his party takes over the Senate, said in a statement. “We also need a change in policy.”