For the President, a Moment to Reflect, and Then to Depart

WASHINGTON — President Obama on Wednesday made note of his setbacks as well as his victories in the surprisingly productive lame-duck Congress, and served notice that he would resume the fights on immigration, spending priorities and more when the new Congress with its Republican reinforcements convenes in January.

“One thing I hope people have seen during this lame-duck: I am persistent,” Mr. Obama said, with a flash of energy, at a valedictory news conference. “If I believe in something strongly, I stay on it.”

Many in his party, especially liberals, have openly questioned just that — how strongly Mr. Obama holds his beliefs and how willing he is to fight for them.

Earlier on Wednesday, Mr. Obama was able to dispel such doubts on one issue when he signed a measure repealing the 17-year-old “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy against openly gay people serving in the military.

“No longer will tens of thousands of Americans in uniform be asked to live a lie or look over their shoulder,” Mr. Obama said at a signing ceremony held at the Interior Department to accommodate hundreds of celebratory supporters. Holiday tours made the White House unavailable for the ceremony.

Mr. Obama quoted the chairman of his Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, who was present and received a standing ovation from the gay rights advocates: “Our people sacrifice a lot for their country, including their lives. None of them should have to sacrifice their integrity as well.”

In just the few hours between that morning bill-signing and his late-afternoon news conference, Mr. Obama notched a couple more achievements. The Senate ratified the New Start arms-reduction treaty with Russia, which the president had declared his foreign-policy priority for the session, and also passed legislation covering medical costs for rescue workers sickened after the 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.

Both legislative victories came after leading Senate Republicans surrendered, though Mr. Obama’s persistence and personal commitment of time and legislative capital was said to be more a factor in the case of Start’s ratification than in passage of the Sept. 11 legislation, which was pushed by an unusual, de facto alliance of New York’s Democratic senators and hosts on the conservative-leaning Fox News.

The president refused to back down on pushing for repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” law when some Republican senators suggested he do so as the price of their support for the arms-control treaty.

The final day’s developments completed a string of bipartisan legislative triumphs for Mr. Obama that were all but unthinkable just seven weeks ago, when Democrats suffered what he once again on Wednesday called a “shellacking” in the midterm elections.

Supporters credited Mr. Obama’s tenacity even as some complained that he too rarely showed the trait in earlier dealings with Congress. Instead, they say, he often deferred on legislative strategy to the Democratic leaders — Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who will no longer command a majority in the coming House, and the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, who will have a much smaller majority in January — and to his since-departed White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, a former congressman.

Often cited is Mr. Obama’s failure to act earlier in seeking an extension of the expiring Bush-era tax cuts except those on high incomes; delaying action until after the midterms gave Republicans more leverage to force a compromise that also extends the high-end tax brackets for two years.

At his news conference, Mr. Obama vowed that he would take on Republicans in the next two years to end the tax cuts for the richest taxpayers, and to protect spending programs for education and innovation even as the two sides try to reduce the budget deficit.

Mr. Obama said “maybe my biggest disappointment” of the Congressional session was Senate Republicans’ blockage of the so-called Dream Act, which would have provided a path to citizenship for college students who were brought to the United States illegally as children. He called their predicament “heartbreaking,” and promised that in the next Congress, “I’m going to go back at it.”

But first Mr. Obama is taking a delayed vacation, joining his family in Hawaii, where he grew up, for their traditional holiday break. Leaving the news conference, his last words were “Mele kalikimaka” — Hawaiian for “Merry Christmas.”