President Barack Obama held his first press conference Wednesday after winning reelection, facing reporters to address a range of topics including CIA Director David Petraeus' fall from grace and Obama's proposed tax increases for the wealthy to dig the nation out of debt.

Some highlights, via The Wall Street Journal's live blog:

10:38 a.m. President Obama's opening statement makes no mention of his election victory. He plunges right into details about upcoming budget negotiations. No time for a victory lap.

10:43 a.m. President Obama refers to former CIA Director David Petraeus in the past tense. “Gen. Petraeus had an extraordinary career,” he said. He commended Petraeus, who was caught up in an adulterous affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell.

10:50 a.m. President Obama stakes out a firm position: He wants to end Bush era tax cuts on “the wealthiest 2%.” Closing loopholes alone won’t achieve deficit reduction targets, he said. “The math tends not to work,” he said.

“What I’m not going to do is extend further a tax cut for folks who don’t need it and that would cost close to $1 trillion," he said. "And it’s very difficult to see how you make up that trillion dollars just by loopholes and deductions.”

10:55 a.m. Obama called on a Telemundo reporter for the third question of the news conference, bypassing Reuters, Bloomberg, and other major networks. That a tribute to the growing clout and influence of the Latino population, Spanish-language press included.

11:04 a.m. On Election Night, Obama said he wants to meet with his opponent in the election, Mitt Romney. He said now that he hasn't scheduled a meeting yet.

He gives props to Romney, commending his work turning around the Olympics in Salt Lake City. And he said he wants to hear Romney’s ideas about “jobs and growth.” One sure sign the campaign is over: Obama makes no mention of Romney’s work at Bain Capital.

11:42 a.m. Obama closed the hour-long news conference by refusing to answer a question about automatic spending cuts that a Bloomberg reporter shouted out as he was wrapping up.

A bit tongue in cheek, Obama said he doesn’t want to set a bad “precedent” by fielding the question. 

So ends the first presidential news conference since Mr. Obama’s re-election. He seemed to move more briskly than in past news conferences, at which he had a tendency to filibuster.

NBC News reported the president said he had no evidence that Petraeus' indiscretions posed a threat to national security.

“I have no evidence at this point from what I’ve seen that classified information was disclosed that in  any way would have had a negative impact on our national security,” Obama said at a White House briefing.

…“Obviously, there’s an ongoing investigation. I don’t want to comment on the specifics of the investigation, Obama said, “The FBI has its own protocols in terms of how they proceed. … I have a lot of confidence in the FBI.”

Meanwhile, Fox News was none too pleased about Obama's commitment to raising taxes on the rich. 

"We should not hold the middle class hostage while we debate tax cuts for the wealthy," Obama told reporters. 

From Fox:

Before diving into an explanation of how he wants to avoid the so-called "fiscal cliff" -- and imploring House Republicans to approve legislation to raise taxes on high earners -- Obama sought to once again remind Americans that he took office, four years ago, during a recession that started with the George W. Bush administration. 

"Right now our economy is still recovering from a very deep and damaging crisis, so our top priority has to be jobs and growth," Obama said. "We've got to build on the progress that we've made." 

The reminder was a refrain on the campaign trail, and apparently will be part of the rhetorical repertoire going forward in a second term. 

Check out what kept Twitter abuzz during the conference.

Read more of Neon Tommy's coverage of the 2012 election here, Petraeus' torrid affair here, taxes here and the Libya attack here. 

 

Reach Executive Producer Catherine Green here. Follow her here.