This is hardly a surprise, but President Barack Obama is now talking bipartisanship. From The Hill:
President Obama, returning to Washington from his Christmas vacation in Hawaii, urged House and Senate GOP leaders to put partisan politics aside in the name of working to boost the economy.
The president said onboard Air Force One he hoped incoming House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) "will realize that there will be plenty of time to campaign for 2012 in 2012," according to a pool report.
"And that our job this year is to make sure that we build on recovery," he added. "We started making good progress on that in the lame-duck, and I expect to build on that progress when I get back.” (emphasis mine)
I’m just wondering why he couldn’t have done that the previous two years. Because I saw nothing but partisan politics coming out the White House, especially on Obamacare and the Stimulus. Progress made in the lame duck? Not raising taxes for two years which was politically in his best interest – I hardly call that progress. Calling for bipartisanship after two years of ramrodding things past the other party is incredibly disingenuous. Republicans won the House and made gains in the Senate not so they can compromise on additional spending. If they forget that they’ll quickly have minority status in the House once again.
