After Electoral Rout, Obama Places the Blame on Himself - New York Times

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President Obama during a news conference at the White House on Wednesday, after the midterm elections. Credit Doug Mills/The New York Times

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WASHINGTON — Just days after his party was routed in the midterm elections, President Obama said that he and his White House team had not succeeded in effectively selling the benefits of his policies to the American people, calling it a “failure of politics” that he must change in the final two years of his presidency.

“It’s not enough just to build a better mousetrap,” Mr. Obama said in an interview that was taped Friday at the White House and broadcast Sunday on the 60th anniversary of CBS’s “Face the Nation” program. “People don’t automatically come beating to your door. We’ve got to sell it. We’ve got to reach out to the other side and, where possible, persuade.”

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Mr. Obama acknowledged bluntly that “we got beat” in the elections on Tuesday and said that the Democratic losses prompted him to have a “gut check” about what he needed to do differently. But as he has in the past, the president defended the merits of his administration’s policies, blaming the election results on a poor communications effort in the White House.

“There are times, there’s no doubt about it, where, you know I think we have not been successful in going out there and letting people know what it is that we’re trying to do and why this is the right direction,” Mr. Obama said.

The president sat for the interview before leaving early Sunday morning for a weeklong trip to Asia, where he is scheduled to visit China, Burma and Australia.

In addition to discussing the election results, the president also responded to questions about his decision to double the number of American troops in Iraq, to about 3,000. Mr. Obama said the added troops will allow the United States and the Iraqi military to go on offense against Islamic extremists, even as he reiterated that American soldiers will not be engaged in combat.

“We will provide them close air support once they are prepared to start going on the offense against ISIL,” Mr. Obama said, using an acronym to describe the extremist group known as the Islamic State. “But what we will not be doing is having our troops do the fighting.”

The president said he could not rule out the possibility that even more American troops could be sent to Iraq. But he said his military commanders have told him that the United States may be able to reduce its commitment of troops as other nations begin helping to train Iraqi soldiers.

Mr. Obama declined to confirm that he had recently written a secret letter to Iran’s supreme leader, but said that the United States was not coordinating with Iran in the fight against Islamic extremists. He said America continued to seek an arrangement with Iran that would end its nuclear weapons program.

On immigration, Mr. Obama said he intended to move forward with executive actions after giving the House speaker, John A. Boehner, more than a year to pass a comprehensive overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws.

“I told him at the time, ‘John, if you don’t do it, I’ve got legal authority to make improvements on the system,'  ” Mr. Obama said in the interview, adding that he told the speaker: “  ‘John, I’m going to give you some time but if you can’t get it done before the end of the year I’m going to have to take the steps that I can to improve the system.'  “

The president, clearly seeking to keep up the pressure on Mr. Boehner to act, also insisted that legislation to overhaul the immigration system — if it met Mr. Obama’s goals — could erase the executive actions he was preparing to announce.

“The minute they pass a bill that addresses the problems with immigration reform, I will sign it, and it supersedes whatever actions I take,” Mr. Obama said. “And I’m encouraging them to do so.”

The president hinted at possible changes to his White House staff, saying that “we will be bringing in new folks here because people get tired, you know; it’s a hard job.”

But Mr. Obama also said that he had encouraged his staff to try to tune out the barrage of criticism they often received. He said the “press cycle” often paid intense attention to crises around the world, but failed to take note when a crisis had passed.

“What I keep on telling my team here is don’t worry about the fact that we’re overworked or we’re, you know, getting picked on,” Mr. Obama said. “That’s all irrelevant. What is relevant is we have the chance to help that person every single day. And we do.”

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