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Dark Diwali for Obama

WASHINGTON: American voters bruised by economic hardships handed a crushing defeat to the Democratic Party in the US mid-term elections, casting a shadow over President Obama's four-nation trip to Asia starting with a three-day visit to India later this week. All but written off till a year ago, a resurgent Republican Party wrested the 435-member House of Representatives from Democrats and whittled down the Democrat majority in the 100-member Senate to end the one-party stranglehold on Washington. Although the President was not on the ballot, the defeat will drastically undermine his domestic agenda. It may also weaken his international stature with the possibility that he could be a one-term President. Republicans picked up more than 60 seats in the House to establish a comfortable 239-184 majority with some seats yet to be declared at the time of writing. The result meant that Nancy Pelosi's stint as the House Speaker (who is second in line of succession to the White House after the vice-president) ends after just four years. The mantle passes on to Republican leader John Boehner, enabling the GOP to set the legislative agenda. ``The American people have sent an unmistakable message to President Obama: change course,'' a triumphant Boehner declared as the expected Republican landslide rolled in. The last time Democrats controlled the House, their legislative stranglehold lasted 40 years. This time around it lasted a short four years. They were turfed out by voters hurting from economic woes for which President Obama is not entirely to blame, but which they expected him to ease with his promise of change. In their eyes, he and his party came up short. The Democratic rout was spread far and wide as they lost seats in the House and Senate, besides governorships, across the country. But there were a few modest silver linings on a day of gloom. Democrats hung on to the Senate, although their margin was whittled down from the filibuster-proof 60-40 to a bare majority. The clout of the Tea Party turned out to be exaggerated with several candidates backed by the group, with the prominent exception of Indian-American Nikki Haley (who won the governorship in South Carolina) losing. Many candidates backed by the putative 2012 Presidential challenger Sarah Palin also lost. It was the third election in a row that Americans have kicked a political party out of power. In 2006, both chambers of Congress changed hands, from Republican to Democratic. In 2008, Democrats took control of the White House ousting President Bush, and this year, the GOP has won back the House. In a country where legislative turnovers are rare (typically, more than 85% of incumbent lawmakers are re-elected), Obama became the third successive president to lose Congress in mid-term elections (after Clinton and Bush), suggesting constant and growing voter anger at the state of affairs. Some pundits suggested that the US is now witnessing "wave elections," somewhat of the kind that is common in India where there is a high turnover of legislators. Analysts also maintained it was too early to write off President Obama.President Clinton lost the House (after Democrats had controlled it for 40 years) in the mid-term elections of 1994, but bounced back to win a second term Presidency in 1996 as Republicans gridlocked the government and earned voter ire. President Obama was scheduled to hold a press conference at the White House on Wednesday afternoon (11 pm IST) to offer his take on the results.

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