Here is President Obama's response to the Senate Republicans promising to bottle up all legislation unless the White House capitulates on extending the Bush tax cuts in toto:
Nobody wants to see taxes on middle-class families go up starting Jan. 1, and so there's going to be some lingering politics that have to work themselves out in all the caucuses, Democrat and Republican. But at the end of the day, I think that people of good will can come together.
They can? Where are these people of "good will"? At the end of precisely what "day"? The GOP has been attacking Obama nonstop since the very minute he entered office.
When will Obama's nonsense end? Obama isn't governing. He's offering fatuous and condescending bromides. The GOP isn't interested in spreading Christmas cheer. It wants to pulverize Obama. At some point it won't be historians who have to analyze Obama. It will have to be psychologists.
The man is displaying a pathological belief in bipartisanship that defies reality. He seems to be entering an abusive relationship with the GOP. He gets slapped down. Instead of getting angry, he tries to placate his opponents even more. Perhaps he's under the impression that the more he compromises, the more that constitutes some kind of elusive bipartisanship.
Obama came in to office promising a new era. He got it. A new era of partisan fury, directed from conservatives at him. Except he wants to pretend it doesn't exist. If he keeps pretending, his presidency is going to come a rapid terminus in 2012.
Not if your reality is moving what is considered "the left" further and further to the right.