How long before Obama realizes the "bipartisanship" he seeks...

[misanthrope]

...is somewhere on the order of flying cars and personal jet packs as far as realities go. The right has let it be known since the moment he was elected that they will in no way cooperate with him. The howls from conservatives grow by the day and he hasn't even been in office a week.

I don't recall Clinton engendering this degree of negativity at this point in his presidency. He at least had a modicum of a honeymoon phase.

The right has no intention of letting Obama experience the slightest success and is determined to bring the country down in order to accomplish those goals. We've seen before to what lengths these people are willing to go. The right will not be swayed, they must be vanquished. The evidence for it is abundant.

I respect Obama's idealism and certainly supported him, but I just don't think it will materialize.

[samplegirl]

1. Not as long as Limbaugh is alive.

[sandnsea]

2. They will continue to marginalize themselves

which is the real point. Undo the Reagan Revolution with an Obama Century.

[endarkenment]

3. He is smart, he is surrounded by the smart.

I actually think they know what they are doing.

The Clinton regime was under assault from day one from the same clowns.

[Andy823]

13. I agree with you.

It's only been less than a week that Obama has been in charge, and already the doom and gloom crowd are complaining! I think what they all fail to realize, is that "when" Obama does bring both sides together, and I really think he will, and he convinces the rank and file republicans in the country that people like Rush, Bill, Hannity and all the others who say the party "HAS" to be against "everything" Obama tries to do simply for the good of the "party" and not the country, it will be history in the making! I think he can put an end to the era of the hate filled talking heads running things in the republican party, and bring about some kind of unity. Now don't get me wrong, there will always be the brain dead who will continue to follow the words of those idiot talking heads, but I really think Obama can win over the majority of americans, democrats and republicans included, and get them on his side, the side of the country and the people that live here and not the side of the idiots that want him to fail. He can do it!

[JDPriestly]

4. Agreed. It is not realistic. Obama can offer peace with the rank and

file Republicans, but his offer of peace and cooperation will be rejected by the top of the Republican Party. They can't afford to work with Democrats. But, Obama is doing the right thing in trying to bring them on board. Obama can afford to reach out to them. When they reject his attempts to include them in the discussion, they become more extreme, and distance themselves further yet from the real mainstream of America. So be it.

[Fire1]

12. Absolutely. They are concerned about getting re-elected but if

they were smart (fat chance)they'd start NOW reaching out and convincing their constituents that this is about 'the country' and all else is secondary, right now.

[cali]

5. How long before you realize that Obama is outsmarting the repukes

in part by giving lip service to bipartisanship while serenely putting his agenda in action? And please tell me you're kidding about Clinton.

[AndyA]

6. President Obama knows what he's dealing with.

He saw the "bipartisanship" of the right side during the 110th Congress. He knows how they blocked, filibustered, and otherwise prevented legislation the Dems wanted from passing. The minority party did a lot of damage, but I believe if Reid and Pelosi had been better (stronger?) leaders, the GOP wouldn't have gotten away with it.

I don't think Obama is going to allow his administration's plans to get side tracked by the GOP. I'm not sure what he has in mind, but I do think he will address this issue in short order. He knows he doesn't have a day to waste, and the GOP seems dead set on killing our economy completely.

I think he'll be saying "ENOUGH!" in short order.

[bdamomma]

11. I believe he will slap them down soon.

you can see from the right they are not for the people, or of course they are only for the rich people only, want to make those tax cuts permanent.

[samplegirl]

7. When will they figure it out that

Limbaugh is responsible for helping to ruin their party???

[Marr]

8. This is one reason I think the Limbaugh brigade needs to be muzzled.

If the economic situation in this country deteriorates to a critical level, those voices will be a dangerously unstabilizing influence. They're already on record saying they *hope* he fails to clean up Bush's messes, because it'll give their party more power. This kind of thing was poisonous enough in the 80's and 90's, when we had a relatively good economic environment.

Imagine what might've happened if the nation's radios had been filled with Rush Limbaugh's and Sean Hannity's in the 1930's, screaming that all our woes could be solved if only we'd emulate those Nazi fellas.

It's not a question of free speech in my book, just responsible stewardship of the commons. The airwaves belong to all of us, and we have a right to demand they be used in the country's interests, rather than as a PR tool for Wall Street and the super wealthy.

[TahitiNut]

9. He's not merely talking about Congresscritters. He's talking about the whole country.

Even to the degree he's narrowly referring to GOP Congresscritters, he's carefully avoiding casting the issues in partisan terms -- NOT attacking "Republican opposition" -- and is inviting PROACTIVE suggestions. Maintaining this tone, he's likely to split the right. Some (Boehner) will adopt the bomb-thrower posture and act in purely destructive and negative ways. Others will see it in their best interests to be "part of the solution."

There's no question that the whack-jobs (Boehner, Kyl, Cornyn, Blackburn, et. al.) affiliate with the Limbaugh-listening, Coulter-corrupted, Malkin-malevolent right-wingers and get their stiffies from sociopathic zeal. There ARE others.

[elocs]

10. The same open hand if they unclench their fists also applies to Republicans.

Obama will be who he is and will alter his strategy if needed. He will offer bipartisanship to those Republicans who will accept it. He doesn't need all the Republicans, just a handful or so, but I'm sure Obama doesn't want to turn his administration into one where the battle lines are being drawn and needed and wanted legislation fails in the Senate due to a lack of 60 votes. Obama didn't get to be president by jumping through everybody's hoops, even ours.

[dsc]

14. You have a faulty memory then

the day after the election Dole went on TV to say that he represented the 57% of people who didn't vote for him. Perot came out against his energy tax after campaigning on one that was much higher. Gays in the Military hit the fan almost immediately and so did Somalia which he inherited from Bush.

[spanone]

15. he was in the senate...he knows what utter assholes these self-indulging mutants are...

he's seen them up close

[EFerrari]

16. My memory is that the Republicans were horrible to the Clintons

during the campaign and never stopped. They wouldn't even call President Clinton president.

Obama looks to be taking away the "partisan" meme from the Republicans. If he can pull it off, that would be well done.

[TTUBatfan2008]

17. RE: your comparison to Clinton's honeymoon...

Perhaps they don't want to give him a chance because he's half black.

[misanthrope]

18. I think you're closer to the truth than anyone else**nm

**

[anonymous171]

19. When the GOP rejects anything short of full scale capitulation.

They are so used to the democrats just caving in on them. Obama will hopefully realize that you cannot deal with the GOP in its current state.

[Shakespeare]

20. You're presuming that Obama expects to be 50/50 partners. He doesn't.

And he's made two comments over the last three days that demonstrate exactly what he means when he says "working together."

1. "I won."

2. And the reminder that Rush Limbaugh-style extremism has no place in government.

That's pretty crystal-clear. The republicans are welcome at the table to offer ideas, but we're still going to do it Obama's way. His assertions on Friday greatly shored up my confidence about this.

[emulatorloo]

21. "“What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them"

“What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them - that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply.”

I think Obama knows what he's doing. These obstructionist, GOP over country types are going to get exposed to the American people in short order.