US Democratic Losses in Congress, States Disappoint Obama - White House

Outgoing US President Barack Obama is disappointed with the multiple Democratic Party's losses in the past eight years, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said in a briefing on Friday.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Election losses by more than 1,000 Democratic Party office holders in the US Congress and state legislatures in the past eight years disappoints President Barack Obama, who cites poor messaging by Democrats as the reason, Earnest said.

"The president is the leader of the Democratic Party, and he has been disappointed, particularly with regard to this most recent election, that a lot of good Democratic elected officials, public servants, didn’t succeed at the ballot box and the president has expressed his view about why that is," Earnest stated. "We’ve got the values right. We’ve got the policy prescriptions right. We just need to go and make the argument."

When Obama entered office, Democrats controlled both houses of the US Congress and led Republicans in controlling state legislatures by a 27-14 margin. As Obama’s presidency ends, Republicans not only boast a majority in the Senate and House of Representatives, Republicans also dominate in 30 state legislatures compared with 11 for Democrats.

The president has expressed his view about why the shift happened, Earnest said. "It includes the need for Democratic activists and Democratic voters to express their views persuasively in communities all across the country," Earnest explained.

Earnest cautioned that big election gains by the Democratic Party candidates with Obama at the top of the Democratic Party ticket in 2008 skew the numbers.

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