Grim Resolve Replaces Soaring Oratory (NEW ZEALAND)

No drama with Obama. No joking with Obama.

In his first prime-time news conference yesterday, Americans saw a determined, deadly serious President Barack Obama make his case for a historically huge economic recovery plan - pledging to push it through Congress in record time, even if he and fellow Democrats must steamroll Republicans to do it.

No more blind bipartisanship with Obama, either. He'll watch the Super Bowl with Republicans. He'll visit them on Capitol Hill. He'll put Republicans in his Cabinet. "What I won't do," Obama told reporters assembled in the East Room, "is return to the failed theories of the last eight years that got us into this fix in the first place".

It was a thin line in the sand - and a veiled slap at Republicans - that won't be lost on Obama's liberal supporters. Many are growing restless with a Democratic-controlled Congress that is slashing tens of billions of dollars to schools, states and other valued constituencies from the Obama-backed stimulus bill.

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