With just one week remaining until the mid-term elections, the Obama Administration is hinting at what their post-election agenda might be for the 112^th Congress.

One only has to turn on a cable news channel to know the political landscape will be different come November 3^rd. How different will depend on whether Republicans win control of one or both houses of Congress.

According to a New York Times article published on Sunday, President Obama and "his aides are planning a post-election agenda for a very different political climate. They see potential for bipartisan cooperation on reducing the deficit, passing stalled free-trade pacts and revamping education reform."

On the one hand, for this to happen the Administration will have to reach across the aisle and repair relations that for several years have been acrimonious at best.

On the other hand, as President Obama campaigns for Democrats across the country, he has been sending a mixed message on bipartisanship. According to a recent Associated Press article, Obama "sees opportunities to work with the GOP after Election Day, yet warns Washington could be consumed by gridlock if the opposition takes control."

The mixed message is based on Obama's need for swing voters and Independents to remember why they voted for him in 2008, while at the same time shoring up support from his base to avert sweeping Republican victories come November 2^nd.

Recent examples, according to the Associated Press, point to a town hall meeting with young people where Obama said that the GOP has some good ideas and that there is an opportunity to work together on them.

However, according the Associated Press, two days later at a fundraiser in Boston, "Obama warned that the prospects of bipartisan cooperation would be slim if Republicans ran Congress. He said it would be nearly impossible for him to advance some important issues, like clean energy and education, or to achieve many of his foreign policy goals."

The Associated Press goes on to quote the Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell as saying, "I can't believe he's going to continue to ignore the wishes of the American people if his party has a very bad day Nov. 2," McConnell said by phone. "If he pivots and wants to work with us, obviously I'd be happy to talk to him."

The highly partisan atmosphere that has consumed Washington throughout Obama's two years in office might have a different feel come November 3^rd.