McConnell says he wants to see Obama change course, not fail

Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) said Thursday he wants President Obama to “change,” not fail, and said Republicans will force him from office in 2012 if he does not.

“I don’t want the president to fail, I want him to change,” McConnell said in remarks at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington.

The Senate minority leader also said Republicans view Tuesday’s election results as a repudiation of the Obama administration, rather than a mandate for GOP rule.  

“Tuesday’s election was not about Republicans, it was about the Democrats. They got a report card. They got an ‘F.’ We’re not going to misread the mandate,” McConnell said. 

“You didn’t see me or [House Republican Leader] John Boehner spiking the ball in the end zone and acting like this was about us. Candidly, it was about them, and everybody knows that. So the mandate for change is directed at the other guys.”

Jim Manley, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), responded to McConnell's remarks by stating, “Looks like Senate Republicans have already set the terms of this new legislative session — it's our way or the highway.”

Republicans picked up at least 60 seats in the House on Tuesday, capturing control of the chamber, and added six Senate seats and nine governorships. In a Wednesday press conference, a chastened Obama called the election a “shellacking.”

“I expect his consultants privately are telling him, ‘This was about you,’" McConnell said of Obama. “And I think he was pretty much agreeing to that at the press conference. So we’ll see how they want to change direction.”

The president plans to meet with congressional leaders, including the likely incoming Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), at the White House on Nov. 18.

While extending a hand of bipartisanship to Obama, McConnell issued a stark warning that Republicans have no plans to compromise with the president. The GOP leader also wouldn’t back down from his recent assertion that his party’s No. 1 goal over the next two years will be to deny Obama a second term.

"Over the past week, some have said it was indelicate of me to suggest that our top political priority over the next two years should be to deny President Obama a second term in office," McConnell said. "But the fact is, if our primary legislative goals are to repeal and replace the health spending bill; to end the bailouts; cut spending; and shrink the size and scope of government, the only way to do all these things it is to put someone in the White House who won’t veto any of these things.”

McConnell's comments will add to speculation that Washington could be in for two years of gridlock with Republicans in control of the House. The White House has said it can't expect to have a productive relationship with GOP figures like McConnell so long as they’re working to ensure the president can’t win reelection.  

Asked to name areas on which the GOP might agree with Obama and Senate Democrats over the next two years, McConnell named energy issues such as nuclear power, clean-coal technology, hybrid cars and auto emissions. He also listed spending cuts, debt reduction and aid to private businesses.

“Those are areas of potential cooperation,” he said.

McConnell said the GOP is confident it can win back the Senate in 2012, when 23 Democratic senators will be up for reelection.

“We went from 41 to 47 seats [on Tuesday], at least,” he said. “That’s a pretty good day … We have a realistic shot at getting into the majority in the near future.”