Obama, Aggravated by Gridlock, Stresses Results in Midterms

On a fund-raising trip where President Obama acknowledged at one stop that the country was not going “to go where we need to go” despite his many executive actions, he was back in sales mode on Friday before returning to still-gridlocked Washington.

At a Walmart here, standing on a small stage between displays for patio lights and women’s blouses, the president talked carbon emissions and introduced a series of carbon-reducing steps the federal government will take.

With a deadlocked Congress, the president risks leaving office in 2017 without a major accomplishment from his second term.  And if the Republicans take the Senate and keep control of the House in September, he might be limited to executive actions and speechmaking.

And if the administration’s goals are not met, he said in La Jolla, “then the anxieties of so many Americans are going to be justified.  And that’s not the kind of America we want to live in.”

“On every issue that people here care about, whether it’s climate change, or women’s reproductive health, or rebuilding our infrastructure, or basic research — we are not going to be able to make the kind of progress we need,” he said.

“Regardless of how hard I push, regardless of how many administrative actions I take, we’re not going to be able to go where we need to go and can go and should go unless I’ve got a Congress that’s willing to work with me,” he added.

Obama, Aggravated by Gridlock, Stresses Results in Midterms