Washington (CNN) — A defiant Barack Obama dives into what could be a defining period of his presidency this week, after repeatedly enraging Republicans from afar during his Asia tour.
Obama faces showdowns with the GOP over immigration, the Keystone XL pipeline and his drive for a nuclear deal with Iran, all of which have huge consequences for his political legacy.
Far from being chastened by the Republican capture of the Senate, Obama is setting out to prove he is no lame duck and can still set the agenda.
But the GOP insists the mid-terms gave them a share of power in Washington, and believe Obama risks usurping his authority and even the constitution with his bold new strategy.
Obama chose a highly symbolic setting to set the tone for two final White House years in which he will face a unified Republican Congress.
Side-by-side in Myanmar with the world’s most famous dissident, Obama refused to bow to what Republicans regard as the capital’s new political “reality.”
On the veranda of the lakeside villa from where Aung San Suu Kyi faced down a junta, Obama said he had long warned House Republicans he would use executive power to reform the US immigration system if they failed to.
“That’s gonna happen. That’s gonna happen before the end of the year.”
The president doubled down in Australia on Sunday, before boarding Air Force One for home, saying he would be derelict in his duties if he did not act.
“I can’t wait in perpetuity when I have authorities that at least for the next two years can improve the system,” he said.
Obama seems to have found a backbone
Obama has decided to take on the conservative Clintonites in the Democratic Party. Maybe he’s sick of taking their shit. The Republicans ain’t nothing. It’s the right wing interventionists in the Democratic Party who have been driving him, and us Progressives, nuts for the last six years. Bernie Sanders in 2016.