There were also suggestions that Obama may be contemplating a stripped-down version of the mammoth health bill, to salvage his bid for a historic achievement that has defied a string of previous presidents. As he absorbed the stinging blow from voters, which sent shock waves through the Democratic Party in a key election year, Obama admitted that his need to tackle a flurry of crises had weakened his bond with US voters.
"If there's one thing that I regret this year is that we were so busy just getting stuff done and dealing with the immediate crises that were in front of us that I think we lost some of that sense of speaking directly to the American people," Obama told ABC News.
The president said that he had assumed that if he concentrated on making good policy decisions, voters would understand them, but instead they had become consumed by a "feeling of remoteness and detachment" from Washington. "That I do think is a mistake of mine," Obama said, diagnosing a mood of anger and frustration in the United States over the grinding and lingering impact of the worst recession for decades.
Obama's admission was a far cry from the euphoria of his inauguration exactly one year ago, which drew a crowd of several million people, and the nation-wide feeling of hope and change sparked by his 2008 election victory. The special election upset in liberal Massachusetts on Tuesday was seen by some observers, and Republicans, as a referendum on Obama's first year and his embattled bid to completely overhaul the US health system. That task became suddenly much harder when the Republicans snatched away the Democrats 60th Senate seat, allowing them to mount delaying tactics to slow and thwart White House bills.