Don’t hold your breath, Barack.

Via Politico:

President Barack Obama now acknowledges that his hope that the Republican “fever” would break if he won re-election has not panned out.

“Not yet, obviously,” he told The New Republic. “I never expected that it would happen overnight. I think it will be a process. And the Republican Party is undergoing a still-early effort at reexamining what their agenda is and what they care about. I think there is still shock on the part of some in the party that I won reelection. There’s been a little bit of self-examination among some in the party, but that hasn’t gone to the party as a whole yet.”

The president told TNR that he believes this is in part because the issues that Washington turned to immediately after the election centered around spending and taxes — key flashpoints between the parties where it is hard to find common ground. But, he said, if he and Congress can get over the fiscal issues with a grand bargain so-to-speak, he envisions the GOP fever perhaps breaking then.