08.11 Obama Should Overhaul Administration After Midterm Drubbing: White House Ex-Speechwriter

WASHINGTON, November 8 (RIA Novosti) - US President Barack Obama would be best served to issue a complete overhaul of his administration after the Democrats lost many seats in both chambers of Congress during Tuesday's midterm elections, Mark Davis, a former speechwriter and senior director of the White House Group told RIA Novosti on Saturday.

"The only chance the Obama administration has to make a mark [in his final two years] would be to work close with Congress. But this is a president who is insular… [and] surrounded by people who reflect back to him what he wants to hear," Davis said.

"Any other president would replace his staff after such a repudiation, if no reason than to say to the public, 'I get it, I will change'," he noted.

Davis is dubious Obama will look to compromise. "For a man with an Ivy League education, he seems remarkably ignorant of the ways in which past presidents – Lyndon Johnson and Bill Clinton – have worked with Congress."

Republicans seized control of the Senate on Tuesday, giving the GOP full command of Congress. The races decided were largely blowouts, as the GOP gained seven seats in the Senate, and maintained a solid majority in the House of Representatives.

The party out of power in the White House, in this case the Republicans, often does well in midterm elections, when the contest becomes a referendum on the president and his policies.

Following his party's defeat on Tuesday, the president would be best served to seek a major reshaping of his administration, Davis said. He claimed that the first member who should be dismissed is Valerie Jarrett, a longtime friend and confidant who has served as Senior Advisor to Obama, and is one of his closest confidants.

Jarrett is "an enabler of the worse tendencies of Barack Obama to go it alone, even to the point of stiff-arming other Democrats," Davis noted.

"Some Clinton people have told me that the White House doesn't understand the need to work the center in American politics, and they lack a fundamental appreciation for how the presidency can be effectively used in Washington. Obama has a little time to correct, but he needs to free himself from the uncritical adulation of Valerie Jarrett in order to see the world as it is," Davis said.

He is doubtful Obama's priorities will be willing to sincerely work with Republicans, if his first six years are any indication with how he will govern for his final two.

"It would be better [for Republicans] to let Obama do whatever he is going to do, and let the American people react. They won because Obama vocally put his policies on the line - and lost. So this election is an unambiguous rejection of the president's approach and policies," Davis said.

"Republicans would be wise to ignore Obama, who is increasingly irrelevant in domestic politics, and focus on their priorities, which is to create jobs and increase income," he added.

The president has made it clear that regardless of Tuesday's results, he may act under executive action to pass immigration reform.

The US Republican party has been very critical of Obama’s use of authority, accusing him of abusing his executive power on immigration issues and the Affordable Care Act — the US president’s signature health care law. Republican House of Representatives speaker John Boehne Boehner is now pursuing a lawsuit against Obama over the alleged abuse of power.