Interesting article - the President is taking the long view.
" The brutal truth is that who controls the Congress for the next two years does not much matter to Obama.
He can't get any legislation through even the current Congress since the Democrats lost their "super-majority" of 60 seats in the Senate last January, so what's the difference?
The United States has not yet gone through a painful debate about how to tame the deficit, but it must do so soon, and Obama knows that that poses a particular problem for Republicans.
If they will not raise taxes on the rich or cut defence spending, then they have to support brutal cuts in health care and pensions or lose all credibility as deficit-cutters."
In summary: "A Republican-controlled Congress may well come to be seen as an obstacle to fiscal responsibility even by many Republicans."
article here