American consumer cares about by having this pipeline come through. Like the rest of america, black america in the aggregate is better than when i came in office. And we have more work to do on that front. Nbcs Kelly Odonnell is at the white house. Its great to see you. The president definitely feels like he has one foot out the door today. Interestingly, only called on female reporters here. Reporter that was notable. The trend was quickly evident. He carried it through to the end, even taking one more question from april ryan, who persisted at the end. Thats interesting for those of us who like the art and the science of a president ial press conference. But this was a an hour long exchange filled with really important headlines, from the sony case where the president said he acknowledged the difficult position a publiclyheld corporation was in with all of the damage thats been done there. But believing they acted in error. They made a mistake. At the same time the president didnt take up the opportunity to say, he would screen the film that has been at the source of all of this International Intrigue here at the white house. So, he was critical of sony. Acknowledged seas acknowledged sony difficult position but trying to lay a marker on what private corporations and other institutions will need to do when it comes to the threat, the very real threat of cyber terrorism. The president was dripping with derision about north korea, being so upset about a movie that is a comedy. He also then moved on to the topic of cuba, where he was questioned about that. Notable that he said, he expects to visit cuba in his lifetime but has no plans to go there at this time. As president and no plans imminent to have raul castro visit the United States or the white house. Thats interesting because, obviously, the cuba change will play out big in 2015 with the Republican Congress needing to weigh in on things like lifting the embargo, which is in law, and funding some of the operations in cuba, like a new embassy or other ways to try to open those gates. So, this was a substantive News Conference. It had some humor. It had some funny lines and some unexpected moments. It all the allfemale questioners but there was real substance here, too. Its the kind of thing that even in a yearend News Conference, we didnt hear anything about isis or the ongoing concerns about will there need to be a different complement of u. S. Troops on the ground in iraq to fight the that particular terror threat. So, still so many other topics to get to, but the ones most recent, most on the news were certainly part of this back and forth today. The president was newsy. He had some humor. And clearly is ready to go on vacation. Krystal . Absolutely. Kelly odonnell at the white house, thank you so much. Lets bring in dana milbank, Political Columnist at the Washington Post. Thanks for being with us. Hi, krystal. We should have gotten a women for this segment. Youll have to do. Sorry. You got somebody with a womans name. How about that . I guess that will work. Im not in a position to make fun of names. As kelly was pointing out, what the president said about sony hack. Saying they made a mistake and even contrasting them with boston. What did you make of the president s comments there . I was glad de it. He was forceful on that. Certainly what i had been wondering about, having made plans to see this film as a matter of protest against north korea. And thats how a lot of americans will be. This seemed to be a revived president knocked doi down by the Midterm Elections. He had the ease of a man headed to hawaii but he also seemed to be enjoying himself in i a way i havent seen. Looks like eyes ice spoiling for a fight with republicans next year, relishing and looking forward to it. He seemed to be not giving in at all on things like keystone, which, you know, after the cuba announcement, it seems like maybe theres going to be some strong president ial leadership here. Dana, i think thats totally right. The moment that jumped out at me from the early part of the presser is when the president said, interesting stuff happens in the Fourth Quarter, which of course in sports analogy is perfect for where he is but suggests as opposed to lame duck, when its just like the end of your presidency fizzle out. No, in the quouFourth Quarter, is winning time. In terms of executive actions around immigration, cuba and climate, hes taking this Fourth Quarter as a chance to really impact the game. Right. Hes going to throw some long passes and see what he connects. Thats exactly what he should be doing now. And i think the line was spot on, as if he hadnt been issuing executive orders, john boehner and Mitch Mcconnell will be completely compliance in addressing everything on the president ials agenda. Thats nonsense. The well had been poisoned long before immigration executive orders came along. So, it is i mean, he has no choice but to get his back up and put up a real fight. Thats how youll get to compromise with these guys. Its certainly not go to be achieved by backing down. He seemed punchy. Dont know what they put in his milk in the white house. If you look back to 2007, 2008 when barack obama got on the scene for president. That he was a blank slate. You had centrist and mod riss, republicans said he might reach across the aisle. He was unknown. Six years into his presidency, how would you assess him on that scale . How would you characterize him ideological and governmentally . Well, hes been all over the lot. And i think he disappointed a lot of the progressive base who saw him as an empty vessel and filled him with those ideas. Now youre seeing a little Elizabeth Warren effect here. I think youre seeing a guy like you heard him on keystone and you heard him taking it to the Republican Leadership in congress. I think part of the lesson here is where the energy is in his party. He doesnt have to worry about the moderates in the the moderate democrats in the senate now. Theyre all but gone. You definitely see at least in the Fourth Quarter hes going to run to the left. You know, as Kelly Odonnell was saying, it was a newsy press conference but very relaxed. He was laughing. He was making jokes. Very much one foot out the door, ready to go on vacation. A different tone than weve seen in a number of these other press conferences. Also, dana, in the past few weeks you see a change in how hes handle the situations. It was written in the New York Times yesterday and described well. Gone are the cautious political calculations. Mr. Obama is pushing forward aggressively on his promised agenda and ignoring his most ar dent critics. If i were imagining a cartoon being drawn up on this, i would see president obama basically giving the middle finger to republicans. Oh. What do you think the turning point was for him . I dont think we could show that cartoon on the air. Its probably some rude gesture, abby. Yeah, i think thats the tone hes taken. Freedoms just never word for nothing left to lose. Hes lost the senate. He lost the house. Now he can be himself and put up a fight here. So, i think you saw that feistiness in his language. And you certainly saw it in the cuba announcement. And i think hes going to hes saying to the Republican Congress, bring it on, hes ready for this fight. And if he takes that fight to them, hes going to have a unified Progressive Democratic party behind him. The always feisty dana milbank, thanks. But not a woman. Sorry. And straight ahead, another cycle regular, brian boyler, also not a woman but here to talk about the president s advice for republicans in the new year. So,as my personal financial psychic, im sure you know what this meeting is about. Yes, a raise. Im letting you go. I knew that. You see, this is my amerivest managed. Balances. No. Portfolio. And if doesnt perform well for two consecutive gold. Quarters. Quarters. Yup. Then amerivest gives me back their advisory. Stocks. Fees. Fees. Fees for those quarters. Yeah. So, im confident im in good hands. For all the confidence you need. Td ameritrade. You got this. Youre down with crestor. Yes when diet and exercise arent enough, adding crestor lowers bad cholesterol up to 55 . Crestor is not for people with liver disease, or women who are nursing, pregnant, or may become pregnant. Tell your doctor all medicines you take. 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Were going to disagree on some things, but there are going to be areas of agreement. And weve got to be able to make that happen. And thats going to involve compromise every once in a while. We saw during in lame duck period, perhaps that spirit of compromise may be coming to the fore. The first family heads to hawaii for the holiday. When he gets back, president obama will be greeted by a completely republicancontrolled congress. That is not exactly paradise. For that, lets bring in Senior Editor at the new republic. Great to have on you the show, especially on a friday. Thanks for having me on. The president s recently made some pretty big moves. In order to keep those moves alive, hes got to get republicans on his side. Weve already gotten a taste of their response recently. Marco rubio called him the worst negotiator since jimmy carter. How is this going to go when he gets back from his trip. A lot of the stuff he does on his own, he doesnt have to do much to defend. If republicans use their control of congress to try to pass spending bills or other must pass bills that chip away at those things, he can credibly threat ton veto those. We know the republicans are ahead of 2016. They to want avoid initiating crisis like they did for the first two years of their house majority. So, i think the thins hes done, cuba, immigration, climate change, those are basically secure and will be secure unless a republican wins the white house in 2016. The question is whether republicans are going to be willing or able or want to put those disagreements aside and, you know, put, you know, small points on the board. Make some small ball deals with obama in the way he suggested during the press conference, that he didnt buy just because hes done all those things that republicans cant work with him to do other things that he wants to do. Right. You mentioned republican obstruction, lets say, to president obama. That brings to mind obama care. Very interesting. This this press conference i think we heard president mention obamacare once. No questions on the topic. It used to be if the president sneezed you would have 15 questions about obamacare. There was nothing. Does that mean this is settled . Youre an expert on this. What does this mean for obamacare moving into 2015 . Theres a wild card here. So, if there were no wild card, i would say the obamacare question would kind of go silent for the next two years. Republicans would still politic on it, obviously, but the idea they would pick a big fight or a spending bill or debt limit bill to chip away or roll back obamacare, i think those days are behind us. Theres a Supreme Court case that will be heard and decided in the coming year, which if the courts conservatives rule together with the challengers, it will basically wipe out obamacare subsidies and mostly the individual mandate in about three dozen states. The Supreme Court would be foising the kind of crisis republicans and democrats want to avoid on congress in saying, heres the mess we made and its on you to clean it up. The states might do some stuff to clean it up. But i think that if that happens there will be real resistance by republicans to fix the decision the Supreme Court made and republicans will be working democrats will be trying to prevent republicans from reopening the books and destroying the law and pushing hard to get republicans to say, were not going to let the Supreme Court take Health Care Away from 6 million people. Youll see interest things happen from there. A lot of the people who lose their insurance will be from states like ohio and pennsylvania, where republican senators are going to face tough reelection prospects. That would be the wild card. That would really scramble things. Other than that, i think obamacare is on a glide path right now. Thats good to hear. Another obvious point of contention between the president and republicans is on the Keystone Pipeline. He made interesting comments here, especially to the last question. Would keystone came up. The president has previously said, we should let the process play out. Here he was fairly critical of the Keystone Pipeline being bad for the environment and not really doing much in terms of jobs. I expect that will be a continued point of debate coming up in this upcoming congress. Its probably going to be among the first votes the senate takes when Mitch Mcconnell becomes majority leader. Mitch mcconnell is facing all kinds of competing tensions because hes got his vulnerable members, his conservatives, some of whom want to be president and this narrow window at the beginning because he might only be a twoyear majority leader where he wants to put some points on the board for himself so he can secure a legacy. And keystone is one of these issues where theres a chance that he can sort of outmuscle obama. If he can wrangle up extra democratic votes and get a vetoproof majority for keystone, he can force obamas hand on this one. I think thats what hes hoping to do. If not, at least to use it as a political wedge because its the kind of issue thats really easy to focus group and it polls well. But obama seems geared up to go toe to toe with mcconnell on this. If he thinks he can sustain that veto, hell do it. And so well get to watch that fight play out in the next, you know, three weeks or so i think. Thats absolutely right. And i think that he did have a pugilistic tone at moments, but at other times he seemed to respect this idea that that isnt always going to get things done in the legislative process. One of the lines that jumped out at me is when he was talking about working with the next congress, and he talked about working with the previous congress, attempting to on the immigration bill, but he gave them the space to act. And a lot of people say that this president is not forceful enough in pushing his ideas, but he understands that whichever party the president comes from, the more the president pushes what he wants and attaches himself to a given piece of legislation, an idea, the more the other party will push against that idea. And he understands that he cant just sort of ram things down peoples throats and then get that. The more hands off he is, the more of a chance he might have to actually have that get through. I think he has come to learn that the president , particularly his own presidency, is a polarizing institution, right . And so his the idea that he had earlier in his administration, that just by winning, you create momentum for further victories. Doesnt really resemble how politics actually operate in the United States. But with respect to the issues that hes already acted on and tried to get congress to go along with him and has failed to, immigration, climate, now maybe cuba, i think the next few years is going to be just about sort of holding those executive actions in place and not letting republicans force his hand to roll them back. And then letting the 2016 election kind of determine the ultimate fate of those things. If a democrat wins, they can that democrat can credibly go to congress and say, here are some deeply rooted things. I will keep doing them if you work with me on a bill to codify them. If you want to put it on our immigration policy or energy pole policy, maybe get some conservative goodies thrown in by making these things permanent, then ill work with you. If not, were just going to keep pushing our executive authority in these areas. In a way, hes sort of teeing up an agenda for Hillary Clinton and one shes suggested shes going to run on. So, if she were to win, thats when the issue of all these issues would be thrown sort of back into the legislative arena. You mentioned Hillary Clinton and the future, which begs the question around the direction that this country is going. Nbc wall street journal did a poll. The results came out yesterday. There was a number that stuck out to me. It was 71 . 71 to the next president should take a different approach than president obama. Obviously, he seems like hes in a great mood. He was optimistic today. How do you govern for the next two years when its clear that americans want to go in a completely different direction . Well, i think mainly what you do is you just hope that the recent Economic News continues over the next two years because those numbers will change if the kinds of, you know, jobs numb