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Obama takes responsibility for voter frustration

(AP) - President Barack Obama said Wednesday thatvoters frustrated by the pace of economic recovery dictated aRepublican takeover of the House in midterm elections, adding, "Aspresident I take responsibility"

News 12 Staff

May 22, 2014, 7:24 PM

Updated 3,917 days ago

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(AP) - President Barack Obama said Wednesday thatvoters frustrated by the pace of economic recovery dictated aRepublican takeover of the House in midterm elections, adding, "Aspresident I take responsibility" for a failure to restore jobgrowth more quickly. The president said he was eager to sit down with the leaders ofboth political parties "and figure out how we can move forwardtogether." "It won't be easy," he said, noting the two parties differprofoundly in some key areas. He spoke at a White House news conference on the day afterRepublicans captured control of the House and cut deeply into theDemocratic majority in the Senate. "No one party will be able to dictate where we go from here,"he said, a clear warning to Republicans that he won't simply bow totheir demands for a sharply conservative switch in economic policy. With his comments, Obama largely followed the lead of Republicanleaders who said earlier in the day they were willing to compromise- within limits. With unemployment at 9.6 percent, both the president and theRepublicans will be under pressure to compromise. Yet neither mustlose faith with core supporters - the Republicans with the teaparty activists who helped them win power, Obama with the voterswhose support he will need in 2012. The president said the economy had begun a recovery since hetook office but Americans became wary when they saw governmentbailouts of failing banks and two of the Big Three U.S. automakers. "I think people started looking at all this, and it felt as ifgovernment was getting much more intrusive into people's lives thanthey were accustomed to," he conceded.
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