US: John Boehner elected Speaker in House of Representative

The 112th Congress of the United States was called and John Boehner was elected as Speaker in the House of Representatives.

In his first address as the House’s top member, Boehner focused on cutting the government’s record deficit and creating jobs. He replaced Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat whose party lost to the Republicans last year in the mid-term elections. Our spending has caught up with us, and our debt will soon eclipse the size of our entire economy. Hard work and tough decisions will be required, said Boehner. Before Boehner spoke, Pelosi addressed the lawmakers and introduced Boehner. In the House of Representatives, 87 new Republican members and nine new Democrats were sworn in at noon, shifting control of the chamber officially to the Republican party. Republicans now hold a 242-193 edge in the House.

WikiLeaks cables claim sacking German minister’s assistant

The WikiLeaks revelations have claimed their first political scalp in Europe with the sacking of the German foreign minister’s chief of staff, who acted as a spy for the Americans, keeping the US embassy in Berlin posted last year on the confidential negotiations to form Angela Merkel’s new government.

Amid a mood of increasing anger in the German political class at the disparaging observations on the chancellor’s cabinet from US officials, a liberal MP today demanded the withdrawal of the American ambassador in Berlin, Philip Murphy. Guido Westerwelle, the German foreign minister and leader of the liberal Free Democrats, the junior partner in the Merkel coalition, is described unflatteringly in the US cables from Berlin as inexperienced,

Obama arrives in India eyeing jobs for America

President Barack Obama flew into India’s commercial capital on Saturday aiming to boost ties and seal big-ticket business deals to secure jobs and exports days after voters punished his Democrats in mid-term elections.

Obama will also visit Indonesia, South Korea and Japan on a 10-day tour that will see Washington push to prevent countries unilaterally devaluing currencies to protect their exports, a top theme at the Group of 20 heads of state meet in Seoul next week.

In Mumbai, Obama’s first stop will be the luxury Taj Mahal Palace and Tower Hotel, where he will pay respects to the victims of the 2008 attacks at one of the primary targets of gunmen who slaughtered 166 people.

One of the first diplomatic tests for Obama will be at the Taj. Indians will want a strong statement against Pakistan for fostering militants, but Washington must tread a fine line

Barrack Obama Pledges to Work Sincerely With Republicans

The US President Barrack Hussain Obama has said that he would try his best to work sincerely with the republicans. The US President also accepted his governments role in the slow economic progress of the country.

Speaking at a press conference after a clear defeat in the Congress, the US President said that even if the republicans aspire to reform his economic policies he would not feel hesitant in changing them. The US President also said that although many citizens have not been feeling positive changes in the economy but still hopes should never die-out.

He said that keeping politics away, the republicans and the democrats should work together for the betterment of the country. Barrack Hussain Obama was of the view that mere tax reductions are not enough; infact deficits, loans, debts and expenditures should be given consideration to revive the staggering economy.

Republicans Win the House in US Polls

Resurgent Republicans won control of the House and cut deeply into the Democrats’ majority in the Senate in momentous midterm elections shadowed by recession, ushering in a new era of divided government certain to complicate the final two years of President Barack Obama’s term.

House Speaker-in-waiting John Boehner, voice breaking with emotion, declared shortly before midnight Tuesday that the results were “a repudiation of Washington, a repudiation of big government and a repudiation of politicians who refuse to listen to the people.”

Obama monitored returns at the White House, then telephoned Boehner with congratulations in a call that underscored the power shift.

On a night of triumph, Republicans fell short in their effort to gain control of the Senate and take full command of Congress, although they picked up at least six seats. They failed in an attempt to defeat Majority Harry Reid in Nevada, winner in an especially costly and brutal race in a year filled with them.

Boehner and his Republicans needed to gain 40 seats for a House majority, and they got them. They led for 11 more.

The victories came in bunches — five Democratic-held seats each in Pennsylvania and Ohio and three in Florida and Virginia.

Among the House Democrats who tasted defeat was Rep. Tom Perriello, a first-termer for whom Obama campaigned just before the election.

Obama was at the White House as the returns mounted, a news conference on his Wednesday schedule.

In Senate races, tea party favorites Rand Paul in Kentucky and Marco Rubio in Florida coasted to easy Senate victories, overcoming months of withering Democratic attacks on their conservative views. But Christine O’Donnell lost badly in Delaware, for a seat that Republican strategists once calculated would be theirs with ease.

Democrats conceded nothing while they still had a chance. “Let’s go out there and continue to fight,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi exhorted supporters in remarks before television cameras while the polls were still open in much of the country.

But not long after she spoke, Democratic incumbents in both houses began falling, and her own four-year tenure as the first female speaker in history seemed near an end.

With unemployment at 9.6 percent nationally, interviews with voters revealed an extraordinarily sour electorate, stressed financially and poorly disposed toward the president, the political parties and the federal government.

Sen.-elect Paul, appearing Tuesday night before supporters in Bowling Green, Ky., declared, “We’ve come to take our government back.”

About four in 10 voters said they were worse off financially than two years ago, according to preliminary exit poll results and pre-election surveys. More than one in three said their votes were an expression of opposition to Obama. More than half expressed negative views about both political parties. Roughly 40 percent of voters considered themselves supporters of the conservative tea party movement. Less than half said they wanted the government to do more to solve problems.

The preliminary findings were based on Election Day and pre-election interviews with more than 9,000 voters.

All 435 seats in the House were on the ballot, plus 37 in the Senate. An additional 37 governors’ races gave Republicans ample opportunity for further gains halfway through Obama’s term, although Andrew Cuomo was elected in New York for the office his father once held.

Republicans were certain of at least six Senate pickups, including the seat in Illinois that Obama resigned to become president. Rep. Mark Kirk won there, defeating Alexi Giannoulias.

Democratic Sens. Russell Feingold in Wisconsin and Blanche Lincoln in Arkansas were turned out of office. In addition, Republicans scored big in races for Democratic seats without incumbents on the ballot. Former Rep. Pat Toomey won a close race in Pennsylvania, North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven won easily there, and former Sen. Dan Coats breezed in a comeback attempt for the Indiana seat he voluntarily gave up a dozen years ago.

“Republicans will continue to stand up for the American people and for the priorities they voted for today, and we are hopeful that the administration and Democrat leaders will change course,” Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell said in a written statement.

Democrats averted deeper losses when Gov. Joe Manchin won in West Virginia — after pointedly distancing himself from Obama — for the unexpired portion of the late Sen. Robert C. Byrd’s term, and Attorney General Richard Blumenthal was victorious in Connecticut, dispatching Linda McMahon, former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment. Sen. Barbara Boxer was elected to a fourth term in California, overcoming a challenge from Carly Fiorina.

The GOP gubernatorial gains came after a campaign in which their party organization spent more than $100 million, nearly double what Democrats had.

Among the incumbents who fell were Ted Strickland in Ohio, defeated by former Rep. John Kasich, and Chet Culver in Iowa, loser to former Gov. Terry Branstad.

In California, former Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. was elected to the office he held for two terms more than a quarter-century ago.

In a footnote to the brutal politics of the campaign, Republican-turned- independent Lincoln Chafee was elected governor of Rhode Island. Obama campaigned in the state in the campaign’s final week. But he declined to endorse the Democratic candidate, Frank Caprio, out of what the White House said was respect for Chafee, who had endorsed the president in his own presidential race two years ago.

A Republican takeover of the House would usher in a new era of divided government after two years in which Obama and fellow Democrats pushed through an economic stimulus bill, a landmark health care measure and legislation to rein in Wall Street after the near collapse of the economy in 2008.

Republicans opposed all three of the measures, accusing the president of supporting an ever-expanding role for the government with ever-rising spending.

Paul’s triumph in Kentucky completed an improbable rise for an eye surgeon making his first race. He drew opposition from the Republican Party establishment when he first launched his bid, then struggled to adjust to a statewide race with Attorney General Jack Conway.

Rubio, also running with tea party support, was gaining about 50 percent of the vote in a three-way race in Florida, months after he forced Gov. Charlie Crist to leave the Republican Party and run as an independent. Democratic Rep. Kendrick Meek was running third.

But a third tea party-backed candidate, O’Donnell, who went from a virtual unknown to primary winner to fodder for late-night comedians in the span of a few months, lost overwhelmingly to Democrat Chris Coons in Delaware. Republicans had counted on taking the seat from the Democrats early this year, but that was before O’Donnell defeated veteran Rep. Mike Castle in a September primary. Democrat John Carney easily won the seat that was Castle’s for nearly two decades.

Not all the Republican newcomers were party crashers.

In New Hampshire, Republican Kelly Ayotte won a Senate seat, defeating Democratic Rep. Paul Hodes. Former Bush administration official Rob Portman won a seat in Ohio, and Rep. Jerry Moran won in Kansas and Rep. Roy Blunt in Missouri.

Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont was re-elected to his seventh term and Barbara Mikulski her fifth. New York Sens. Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand also won, as did Sen. Ron Wyden in Oregon and Boxer in California In Hawaii, Democratic Sen. Daniel Inouye was elected for a ninth time to the seat he has held since 1962.

Republican Sen. Jim DeMint, who won a second term in South Carolina, has been working to establish a nationwide standing among conservatives. He was instrumental in supporting tea party challengers in several primaries this spring and summer at a time the GOP establishment was backing other candidates.

In Alabama, Sen. Richard Shelby was re-elected easily, as were Republican Sens. Tom Coburn in Oklahoma, Richard Burr in North Carolina, John Thune in South Dakota, Johnny Isakson in Georgia and Mike Crapo in Idaho.

The president gave a series of radio interviews pleading with Democratic supporters not to sit on the sidelines. “I know things are still tough out there, but we finally have job growth again,” he said in one. “It is all at risk if people don’t turn out and vote today.”

While Obama’s name was not on the ballot, his record and policies were. After nearly two years in power, he and congressional Democrats were saddled politically with the residue of the worst recession since the 1930s.

“I will honestly say that I voted for him two years ago,” said Sally McCabe, 56, of Plymouth, Minn., stopping to cast her ballot on her way to work. “And I want my vote back.”

In Cleveland, Tim Crews, 42, said he measures Obama’s performance by the number of paying miles he drives in his delivery van. His miles have tripled to 9,000 a month. Crews said of the economy: “It’s moving. I know, because I’m moving it.” He voted accordingly.

With so many contested races, and a Supreme Court ruling removing restrictions on political activity by corporations and unions, the price tag for the elections ran to the billions.

Much of the money paid for television advertisements that attacked candidates without letup, the sort of commercials that voters say they disdain but that polls find are effective.

Republicans Set to win House, Gain in Senate

WASHINGTON: Americans unhappy with the economy are poised to hand control of the House of Representatives to Republicans in elections today, a Reuters/Ipsos poll said.

Fifty percent of likely voters said they will choose a Republican candidate when they vote while 44 percent said they will pick a Democrat, the national survey showed.

Republicans are likely to win some 231 seats in the House and take control of the chamber, the poll projected. Ipsos pollster Cliff Young predicted Democrats would hang on to control of the Senate with either a margin of 52 seats to 48 for Republicans or 53-47.

Obama has enjoyed one-party rule in Washington since taking power nearly two years ago. The election result, if it plays out the way the pollsters say it will, would mark a stark reversal of fortunes for him.

Tough political battles seemed to loom ahead over taxes, spending and deficits when a new Congress takes power in January. And Republicans might seek to repeal parts of Obama’s signature achievement, his healthcare overhaul.

There was some talk among Democrats of a mid-course correction by Obama.

“He has a good sense of perspective about the challenge of midterm elections and about the need going forward to make some adjustments and corrections. And you’ll see those play out over the course of the next few weeks,” Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine told ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

Whoever wins, Americans reeling from a 9.6 percent jobless rate want to see the economy on the mend. By a margin of 62 percent to 33 percent, they believe the country is on the wrong track and 47 percent cited the economy as the biggest problem facing the United States today.

The economic woes are taking their toll on Obama, who says his policies need more time to work and that Republicans would take America back to economic policies he believes are discredited.

The poll said 50 percent of those polls believed the Obama administration has made the economy worse than it was before, while 26 percent said Obama has made it better.

Obama’s own job approval ratings continue to lag. The poll found that 45 percent of Americans approved of the way Obama is doing his job, versus 51 percent who said they disapprove.

In a sign that Obama has some work to do to improve his fortunes ahead of his 2012 re-election campaign, 52 percent of those surveyed did not think Obama will win re-election in 2012, the poll found. This included 34 percent of Democrats and 75 percent of Republicans.

U.S. Republicans win House, gain in Senate

WASHINGTON: Disenchanted U.S. voters swept Democrats from power in the House of Representatives and strengthened the ranks of Senate Republicans on Tuesday in an election rout that dealt a sharp rebuke to President Barack Obama.

Two years after Obama won the White House, voter anxiety about the struggling economy and discontent with his leadership fueled big Republican gains that toppled Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi from power and ushered in a new era of divided government.

Television networks projected Republicans would pick up at least 50 House seats, more than the 39 they need for a majority that would elevate conservative John Boehner to House speaker, place Republicans in charge of House committees and slam the brakes on Obama’s agenda.

It was the biggest shift in power at least since Republicans gained 54 House seats in 1994 when Democrat Bill

U.S. Congress likely to be divided, gridlocked

WASHINGTON: The U.S. Congress was headed for political gridlock after Tuesday’s midterm elections, posing a challenge as the country struggles to get out of the economic doldrums.

Voters disenchanted at unemployment swept Republicans into control of the House of Representatives, yet left the Senate in Democratic hands.

A Republican House will be able to ram through conservative legislation on simply majority votes, including measures to shrink government and cut taxes.

But a Senate still held by President Barack Obama’s Democrats could stop those bills, including an anticipated repeal of Obama’s overhaul of U.S. healthcare.

The rise of Tea Party conservatives like Florida’s Marco Rubio and Kentucky’s Rand Paul bodes ill for the chances of Republicans working with Obama on the economy.

“The newly elected crop of House and Senate Republicans

Republicans take House in US mid-term polls

In the US midterm elections, Democrats are facing a battle to hold on to the Senate, with Republicans looking certain to take control of the House of Representatives.
Republicans scored the first key election wins on Tuesday after a long and bitter campaign that could sweep Democrats from power in Congress and slam the brakes on President Barack Obama’s agenda. Anxiety over the stumbling economy and discontent with Obama propelled Republicans to the threshold of huge gains that could give them a majority in the House of Representatives and perhaps even the Senate. Republicans picked up their first Senate seat from Democrats in Indiana. They also held Senate seats in Kentucky, where Republican Rand Paul became the first conservative Tea Party candidate to win a Senate race, and in Ohio. Polls have closed in nine states, although it could be hours before many winners are determined. Voting will end in other states over the next five hours. Opinion polls and independent analysts project Republicans will win at least 50 House seats, far more than the 39 they need to take control and topple Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi from power. More than 90 Democratic seats are in danger, according to the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. Dozens of races are considered too close to call. Republicans are also expected to make big gains in the Senate, but it will be more difficult for them to pick up the 10 seats they need for a majority. They would need to prevail in seven of eight tight races across the country. Republican control of even one chamber of Congress would likely spark legislative gridlock, weakening Obama’s hand in fights over the extension of soon-to-expire income-tax cuts and the passage of comprehensive energy or immigration bills.

Republican wins Obama’s old Illinois Senate seat

WASHINGTON: Republican Mark Kirk won the Illinois seat formerly held by President Barack Obama in the U.S. Senate, NBC and Fox News projected on Wednesday, dealing a blow to the president and his fellow Democrats, who face a narrower majority in the chamber.

The loss by state Democratic treasurer Alexi Giannoulias was an embarrassment to Obama and his party in a state that typically leans Democratic. The president had campaigned there in the final days of the race.

The close contest was marked by harsh exchanges between the two campaigns. Republicans had made it a priority to try to win the president’s old Senate seat. AGENCIES

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