Obama Says Vote Turned on Economy - NYTimes.com

Obama Says Vote Turned on Economy - NYTimes.com:

"WASHINGTON – President Obama said in an interview broadcast Sunday night that he views last week’s mid-term Congressional elections as “a referendum
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on the economy” rather than a referendum on him, his policies or the Democratic Party.

While he said he should be held accountable for the economy as the nation’s leader, he did not accept the suggestion that he pursued the wrong agenda over the last two years, and he focused blame on his failure to build public support for what he was doing or to change the way Washington works.

In a session taped for CBS’s “60 Minutes” before Mr. Obama left for Asia, the correspondent Steve Kroft pointed out to the president that Republicans view the election as a referendum on him and the Democrats, and asked if he agreed. “I think first and foremost it was a referendum on the economy,” Mr. Obama said. “And the party in power was held responsible for an economy that is still underperforming.”"