Obama to Host GOP and Democratic Leaders at White House on Nov. 18

President Barack Obama is seated next to White House Chief of Staff Pete Rouse, as he makes a statement to reporters after meeting with his staff and Cabinet members in the Cabinet Room of the White House.

/ AP

Updated 12:35 p..m. ET

Following the "shellacking" he said he received on Tuesday night in the midterm elections, President Obama is opening up lines of communication with the opposition.

Mr. Obama announced after a Cabinet meeting this morning that he has invited the top Democratic and Republican congressional leaders to the White House for talks on November 18 to discuss the upcoming lame duck session in Congress.

The president invited Republican House leader John Boehner, who is expected to become the speaker of the House, as well as current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Also invited are Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Later, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Mr. Obama also invited Reps. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), as well as Sens. Jon Kyl, (R-Ariz.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.).

Mr. Obama said he wanted the meeting to be "substantive" and not just a photo opportunity.

"This is going to be a meeting in which I want us to talk substantively about how we can move the American people's agenda forward. It's not just going to be a photo-op," he said. "Hopefully it may spill over into dinner." (No word yet on whether Slurpees will be served.)

Complete Election 2010 Results

Democrats will still have sizeable majorities in the lame duck session because new members of Congress do not take office until early January. Issued expected to be taken up before the new Congress is seated include whether to extend the Bush tax cuts (which expire at the end of the year) and whether to extend unemployment insurance again.

Mr. Obama made a specific call for the Senate to ratify the START treaty he negotiated with Russian President Dimitry Medvedev last spring during the session.

"This is not a traditionally Democratic or Republican issue, but, rather, a issue of American national security," he said. "And I am hopeful that we can get that done before we leave, and send a strong signal to Russia that we are serious about reducing nuclear arsenals, but also send a signal to the world that we're serious about nonproliferation."

The president also said he invited all of the nation's newly-elected governors - Democrats and Republicans - to the White House on December 2 to talk about "nuts-and-bolts stuff."

"A lot of times, things are a little less ideological when, you know, you get governors together, because they've got very practical problems that they've got to solve in terms of how they make sure that roads and bridges are funded, and how do they make sure that schools stay open and teachers stay on the job," he said.

Mr. Obama also reiterated what he took from Tuesday's elections.

"It's clear that the voters sent a message, which is they want us to focus on the economy and jobs, and moving this country forward," he said. "They're concerned about making sure that taxpayer money is not wasted. And they want a change of tone here in Washington, where the two parties are coming together and focusing on the people's business as opposed to scoring political points."

Obama: People Saw "Overreach" in My Actions
"Slurpee Summit" on Horizon for Obama & Boehner?
Obama's 2010 "Shellacking" is Like Bush's 2006 "Thumping"
Obama: I'll Talk to GOP on Health Care, But...
What's Next for Obama and Congress?

15 Photos

The New Leaders of the House

---

Kevin Hechtkopf is CBSNews.com's politics editor. You can read more of his posts here.
Follow Hotsheet on Facebook and Twitter.

[cornelia11]

America, our president has always reach out to the GOP. Of course your side will never deal with reality. It's easier for you to speak such untruths and trash because you never think or do any critical thinking that would require you to calm down and use your brain.

Remember when your mother told you to calm down so that you could do your school work. There was a reason for that. Please America pick up a book...read a article that is not on a fake news website.

[maledelga]

I REALLY DONT UNDERSTAND WHAT IS ALL THIS FIXATION SOME DEMOCRATS HAVE WITH MR. OBAMA. IT IS OK FOR THE DEMOCRATS TO POINT OUT EVERYTHING THE REPUBLICANS DID WRONG (KEEP IN MIND THAT THE MAJORITY OF THE HOUSE AND SENATE BACK WHEN BUSH WAS PRESIDENT AND UP TO NOW WAS DEMOCRAT) BUT WHEN IT IS TIME TO COMPLAIN ABOUT THE CURRENT PRESIDENT YOU GET SO UPSET THAT EVEN OBAMA CALLS US THE ENEMY. MEANWHILE HE IS MOST INTERESTED IN MAINTAINING A GOOD RELATIONSHIP WITH OTHER COUNTRIES, SOME OF THEM PROVEN TO BE HOUSING WORLDWIDE TERRORISTS WHO ARE IN FACT THE ONLY ENEMY WE HAVE

WHEN DID IT STOP BEING MY RIGHT AS A CITIZEN OF THIS COUNTRY TO EXPRESS MY OPINION W/O BEING ATTACKED? YOU DEMOCRATS REALLY DONT SEE ANYTHING WRONG WITH THAT?

[emaniacle]

""This is going to be a meeting in which I want us to talk substantively about how we can move the American people's agenda forward."

How did his agenda all of a sudden become our agenda?

[mollydtt]

I believe the invitation was for everyone to discuss the agenda for the American people. Picky picky picky.

[noloyalisti]

Hopefully Obama will offer to work with them and then their failed and extreme policies will be laid out for everyone to see. Clinton did that and he exposed the Gingrich conservative wackos.

Half of Obama's brain has more intelligence than the entire country's population of Republicans and conservatives.

[noloyalisti]

The Republikkklan plot: continue their program of no and destroying the American economy. That was the ignorant, uneducated and lazy Americans will blame Obama in 2012. It worked perfectly for the chumps this time who blamed the Democrats.

[rocketjl]

Lord I hope he does not give 'our' political representatives that nasty and arrogant remark, 'I won', again.

[tsigili]

Obama doesn't know how to be bipartisan, so I expect him to push his personal agenda, again, and the Congress to push back, very hard, that his agenda, is NOT the people's agenda.

There is only one major issue, right now, and that is how to create jobs in this country, with minimal financial waste, and how to create them very fast!

[jimbom121]

ummm, it takes 2 to compromise. Please provide an example of the GOP coming to the table? I'm not seeing it going forward, based on McConnell's comments.

[heytrud]

Obama cannot bring himself to compromise, he has proven himself to be a thin skinned staunch narcissists. Obama wanted to be a king and now he's lucky to be a court jester. We have not forgotten the Gulf Oil Spill and how he handled that mess, he failed miserably. let alone a real leader of sorts. He chose to party at the WH instead of moving down to the Gulf to take care of the Oil spill. I would have moved myself to the Gulf if I were responsible for United States. Obama had every chance for the WHOLE world to see real compromise by letting other countries help us with the Oil spill, he chose to let the Oil Spill out even more. The day the HC Bill debacle took place, Obama just shot out disparaging remarks to every Republican who offered compromise, instead he was a tyrant. He lost 70% of Americans that one day along; the votes 2010 proved this. He is not 'presidential' like, he is now a DUDE. Obama called the AMERICAN people, and yes we are proud American Patriots, NOT 'enemies' 'hand to hand combat" "ride in the back" "not give THEM the keys' it's a good thing Obama has TelePrompTers because when he opens his mouth WE see the real Marxists Obama, and it's exactly what WE thought, he wants a Marxists society. The Republicans will not have to compromise, it is going to be the DEM'S that will have to compromise on every page of the HC Bill. Because it will be de-funded immediately, then repealed once We the People conservatives take over the White House in 2012. Now, If Obama wants to play hard ball; WE can also get a closer look at all of his million dollar CLOSED - HIDDEN records pulled out; legal Birth Certificates, college grades, law grades, school loans, and by the way, why did he surrender his law license in Chicago along with Me-shell?? What laws as attorney's did they BOTH break to get their Law Licenses taken away? It has to be really, really bad for their licenses to be taken away. So sit down, shut up, and start compromising OR we open every record of his and Me-shell's, she needs to be investigated as well for hiring 35 staff members that WE pay for. Other first ladies only had one (1), two at the most. It's gonna get ugly if the Obama's don't compromise with Republicans. Really ugly for every last Democrat; Is he is natural born? If not... every Bill passed is automatically repealed. Every czar is unlawfully appointed. The conservatives have shown WE are not sissy's, WE are stronger than ever. We are done with old WA. rules, WE are back...really back.We have hope & change that he sits down politely and compromises to conservative agenda's. He is not the real enemy and he is sleeping in the People's White House, not his.

[nomossonmyrocks]

To be filled with that much hatred can only lead to a lonely and miserable existence.

[jimbom121]

Way to spew half truths. Where were you when Bush appointd 35 Czars?

[jjgravelle]

So that stick the Democrat Party has been beating us over the head with:
http://gravelle.us/content/democrat-party-demands-compromise
...is an olive branch now?

It's not the Republicans who are currently in the "compromising" position:
http://www.dailyscoff.com/?p=3168

Rather than an imagined mandate to expand the scope of government authoritarianism, the incoming representatives have a REAL mandate to act upon: REPEAL...


-jjg

[nomossonmyrocks]

You have no idea how things really work. If this had been a "mandate" as so many like to think then the GOP would have taken both houses by large margins. The real message is compromise. Meet in the middle on the issues. There will be no repeals but, there can be compromise and all parties will have to make concessions.

[fishguru00]

Not everybody was running for re-election, otherwise the "mandate" would have been clearer...

[wfw3536]

This will be a joke just like when he met one day with the republicans on health care and then did what he wanted without even considering any of the ideas the republicans gave him. Just another show for the press.

[jimbom121]

ummm, look at the bill. Most of the items in th bill were Republican ideas.

[maledelga]

jimbom, did you read al 2000 pages none of them had time to read or you are just saying that because you heard it from one of your democrats friends?