[President Obama]…should return to his original design for governing, which emphasized outreach to Republicans and subordination of party-oriented strategies. The voters have in effect liberated him from his confining alliances with Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid and put him in a position where he can and must negotiate with a much wider range of legislators, including Republicans.
The president’s worst mistake may have been avoiding even a single one-on-one meeting with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell until he had been in office for a year and a half. To make up, the outreach to McConnell and likely House Speaker John Boehner should begin at once and continue as a high priority.
Obama tried governing on the model preferred by congressional Democrats and the result was the loss of Democratic seats and his own reputation. Now he should try governing his own way. It cannot work worse, and it might yield much better results.
I’m thinking Rahm Emmanuel gave Obama’s plan to talk to the Republicans about two months before he advised the President to go to his power – the Democrat’s control of Congress. Was it because the Republicans wouldn’t compromise or were they approached in bad faith – probably not enough trust between the two to make a difference.
In spite of David Broder’s happy thoughts, I don’t expect any better relationships between the two parties or their leaders for the next two years. Or the next six for that matter. Hopefully sometime in the next decade we figure out a way to somehow form some sort of almost agreed upon plan for America’s future. There were some signs of hope last month just before the Congress adjourned, but with blood in the water following the most recent election I just don’t see anyone in power willing to compromise on anything.
Keep an eye on the appropriations work for FY2011 next month and in March.
I have some fundamental digression from Broder’s view of things in this article. I do think it’s deeper than just flawed relationships and tactics. I do think the GOP had offered constructive ideas (and BTW, “nothing” is sometimes the right thing to do, and sometimes there may be needs that are not the government’s to meet, but that’s the conservative in me.) I had mild optimism that Obama would actually be as bipartisan as he promised, but he quickly set fire to his political capital as far as I am concerned. I think he’s been too overtly partisan and condescending for too long for the GOP to cooperate.
I’m expecting gridlock, and that’s not always a bad thing.