Washington ( CNN ) The lame duck is loose . Little more than two years before the moment he stands next to his successor at the presidential inauguration of 2017 , President Barack Obama is feeling unshackled from the constraints of eyeing the next election cycle after last month 's disastrous midterms for Democrats . Simply put , top White House officials say , the President is on a mission to get stuff done . From his dramatic decision to open up diplomatic relations with Cuba to his executive actions on immigration , Obama no longer has to worry about the hand-wringing of endangered Senate Democrats concerned with reelection . `` I think it 's absolutely true , '' former White House press secretary and CNN political contributor Jay Carney said . `` Having lost ( the Senate ) , it does provide some liberation to him . '' The unbridled Obama even took the time to call in to a Massachusetts radio show to needle his friend , outgoing Massachusetts Gov . Deval Patrick . The `` fourth quarter '' policy blitz that is underway at the West Wing is similar in some respects to the `` bear is loose '' image strategy the White House employed last summer . The looser and more active Obama appears , the more the public likes him , aides thought at the time . Asked how he felt about being a `` lame duck '' at his post-midterm news conference , Obama said he planned to squeeze as much as he could into his final years in office . `` You know , if you look at the history of almost every President , those last two years , all kinds of stuff happens . In some cases , stuff that we could n't predict , '' the President said . Current White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Obama accomplished his goal of making 2014 a `` year of action , '' filled with executive orders carried out with the President 's `` pen and phone . '' `` There is a lot more that needs to get done and the President has a long list of things that he 's looking forward to tackling in the new year after a couple weeks with his family after the holidays , '' Earnest told reporters at his final press briefing of 2014 . Privately , senior aides push back on the notion that Obama has adopted the newly frenetic pace solely because the midterms are behind him . The administration 's sanctions on Russia may only now be paying dividends but they were applied over a course of the last year . Re-establishing ties with Cuba , one official notes , was a long-term project that began 18 months ago . `` If Democrats had kept the Senate , Obama would still be doing this , '' Carney said about Cuba . But Carney said the transfer of the gavel of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee from current chairman Sen. Bob Menendez -- a Democrat and fierce critic of Obama 's Cuba policy -- to Republican Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee may have helped somewhat . `` It 's more difficult when the chairman is your own party member , '' Carney added . Losing control of Congress to Republicans has pushed Obama into the late presidency `` refuge '' of foreign policy . `` He has an enormous capacity to act and that , I think , is what he is doing , '' said Aaron David Miller , a Middle East analyst at the Wilson Center . Case in point is the administration 's long-delayed but persistent hope to contain Iran 's nuclear program . A deadline for a deal with the Iranian government was pushed back again just weeks ago . `` He 's now in a position for a comprehensive agreement , '' Miller said of post-midterm Obama . Cuba is another matter . The unpredictability of the Castro brothers could create headaches for the Obama administration and , by extension , the Democrats heading into 2016 . `` Hillary is going to have a hard time with this one , '' Miller said . But successes in foreign policy could easily translate into higher approval ratings . Witness the strides made by Ronald Reagan at the end of the Cold War . Reagan 's cry , `` Mr. Gorbachev , tear down this wall , '' still resonates today . Obama 's standing in public opinion polls are situated nearly where Reagan 's popularity stood at the same point in his second term , according to Andrew Kohut , the founding director of the respected Pew Research Center . `` Indeed views of Obama are not any worse than were attitudes toward Ronald Reagan at about this time in his second term . Understanding the arc of a presidential popularity rating , especially one as varied as Obama 's , requires a longer perspective than a single midterm snapshot , '' Andrew Kohut , Pew Research Center 's founding director wrote in a Politico op-ed . Reagan was also buoyed by a rapidly expanding economy . As the Obama White House is finding , the economic picture is finally brightening after the worst recession since the Great Depression . `` The economy is doing well . It 's in a good place . It 's going to be in a better place , '' Carney said .
President Barack Obama , freed from the burden of further elections , is hoping to get things done . He has a lot more power than he did in 2009 and 2010 when Republicans controlled Congress.