Friday, February 26, 2010

Obama's Idea of Bipartisanship


President Obama's dog and pony show, a.k.a. "health care summit," is the latest example of Democrat "bipartisanship."

Obama listened politely for six hours, with occasional flashes of temper, but in the end, the message was clear: It’s over. We’re moving forward without Republicans.

Whether Obama and Dems will succeed in passing reform on their own is anything but assured, to put it mildly. But there’s virtually no doubt anymore that they are going to try — starting as early as tomorrow.

That was the subtle but unmistakable message of Obama’s closing argument. After hours of hearing Republicans repeat again and again that only an incremental approach to reform is acceptable to them, Obama rejected that out of hand.

Emphasis mine.

For the record, bipartisanship would be for Democrats to scale back their ideas to a place where Republicans (and the American people) would agree. But Democrats think bipartisanship is holding a talk fest where they don't listen, then doing what they want to do anyway. And voters will reward them for it in November with a nice, long vacation.

UPDATE: Dems are already giving up on 2010, and arguing that the "real referendum" on Obama and the Democrats won't come till 2012. Of course, by that point, Republicans will have forced Obama to the center, making him look far less radical--and assholish--than he does today.