President Obama offered a fair critique of his own administration on Wednesday: "We were in such a hurry to get things done that we didn’t change how things got done. I think that frustrated people." Calling the Democratic defeat a "shellacking," he congratulated his Republican opponents on their victory on Tuesday, and said he looks forward to working with them on reducing the deficit, building a clean-energy economy, reforming education, and investing in technology. “The most important contest we face is not between Democrats and Republicans,” he said. “In this century, the most important competition we face is between America and our economic competitors around the world.” He also expressed a willingness to revisit provisions of health-care reform, saying they could "tweak and make improvements" but ruled out major changes.