 At a press conference the next day, Obama strongly defended the compromise agreement, after numerous congressional Democrats had strongly objected to aspects of it.Obama labelled Republicans as "hostage takers" for forcing the situation, but also lashed out at liberal Democratic opponents of the deal as "sanctimonious" purists and compared it to their unhappiness over the lack of a public option in the health care reform legislation the previous year.His stance led to immediate speculation among pundits that he was engaging in political triangulation, akin to what President Bill Clinton had done following the 1994 Republican Revolution.