Buoyant in political victory, President Barack Obama on Wednesday wrapped up a long, rough year in Washington by triumph in a rare, bipartisan "season of progress" over tax cuts, national security and civil honesty Halfway through his term, he served notice to his skeptics: "I am persistent."
The president who strode on stage for a news conference cut a extremely different figure than the Obama who, just seven weeks ago, held a similar event in which he somberly admitted he had taken a "shellacking" in the midterm election and required to re-evaluate. This time, Obama was about to jet off to a Hawaiian holiday break knowing he had secured the kind of legislative wins that rarely come so bundle as they just did, particularly in a postelection lawmaking session.
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