Obama, GOP leaders to put their will to compromise to the test in first post-election meeting

Saying that good ideas don't necessarily come from one party, President Barack Obama said Friday that bipartisan cooperation to advance a variety of issues is possible as long as the White House and a Republican-run "set politics aside for a moment."

Three days after midterm elections that were brutal for Democrats, Obama invited 16 top-ranking lawmakers to a postelection White House luncheon to search for territory ripe for compromise. On the agenda is a host of unfinished business that the current Congress must wrap up before a new, fully Republican-controlled Congress is seated early next year.

Addressing reporters before meeting with his Cabinet prior to the lunch, Obama said the economy and jobs, boosting manufacturing and increasing exports are among areas where he and Congress could find common ground.

"All these issues are ones in which there is a strong possibility of bipartisan cooperation as long as we set politics aside for a moment and focus on the people who actually sent us here," Obama told reporters invited in for the top of the meeting.

Obama said his attitude "has been and will continue to be that good ideas don't necessarily come from just one party."

"I'm looking forward to seeing the leaders ... to have a chance to share with them both what I think we need to be doing to build on the economic momentum that we have," the president said. "But I'm also going to be interested in listening to them in terms of areas where we think it's possible to work together."

The last meeting between the president and congressional leaders, before Tuesday's elections, was on Obama's terms. But much has changed.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., Obama's failsafe for his first six years in office, is about to lose his grip on the upper chamber. Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky is riding a wave of electoral success into the top job. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, is carrying himself with renewed confidence after padding his majority, while House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California presides over a diminished minority.

In the hours after voters delivered their verdict, both Obama and McConnell waxed optimistic about the potential to find common ground, despite the rancor and wide ideological gulf that has undermined such cooperation in the past. Both parties cited dense issues like patent laws and tax reform where Obama and Republicans see at least partially eye to eye.

But bipartisan aspirations to find ways to work together were quickly tempered as it became clear that the same thorny issues that divided Democrats and Republicans before the election will only be more likely to erupt once Republicans can push legislation through both chambers and to Obama's desk unimpeded by Senate Democrats.

McConnell vowed renewed efforts next year to chip away at Obama's health care law — his signature legislative achievement from the brief era just after his election when Democrats controlled both the House and Senate. Republicans in both chambers put Obama on notice they plan to twist his arm on the long-delayed Keystone XL oil pipeline that the GOP wants approved.

Boehner, in his first news conference after the elections, warned Obama on Thursday that following through with his plans to take sweeping executive action on immigration would be like playing with matches.

"He's going to burn himself if he continues to go down this path," Boehner said.

As part of Friday's session, Obama has invited Gen. Lloyd Austin of U.S. Central Command, who heads American military operations throughout the Middle East, to brief lawmakers about the U.S.-led fight against the Islamic State group. In one of his first requests to Congress after the election, Obama announced he would seek new authorization from Congress for the mission.

Earnest, the Obama spokesman, wouldn't disclose the menu for the working lunch in the Old Family Dining Room. But in a nod to Obama's invitation to McConnell a day earlier to drink Kentucky bourbon together, Earnest said such a summit wasn't on the books.

"Not yet, but stay tuned," he said.

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Reach Josh Lederman on Twitter at http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP