Myopia Redux

Link to February 13 New York Times article, "Bipartisanship Isn’t So Easy, Obama Sees," by Peter Baker.

Excerpt: The party-line schism, coupled with the withdrawal on Thursday of a Republican senator, Judd Gregg, as a nominee to Mr. Obama’s cabinet, made clear the futility so far of the president’s effort to move Washington toward post-partisanship.

According to Mr. Baker, it either is or it ain’t. It’s black or it’s white. Nothing in-between. No gray matter.

So tell me. Why do so many journalists refuse to consider the possibility that Obama has a larger, more long-term plan here? (Answer #1: Probably because, since well before the election, they have consistently underestimated his ability to weather difficult situations and come out on top. Answer #2: They focus on the in-the-moment-fight, not the big-picture strategy – the latter probably requiring too much thought.)

To me, it’s a given that Obama knew the Republicans wouldn’t join him at the altar of bipartisanship, at least not right away. Instead, he knew they’d run to their favorite TV and cable enablers and demonstrate the same intransigence, obtuseness, and rigid ideology that they have all along. For crying out loud, why do you think that Mitch McConnell has a 48% unfavorable rating – up 4 percentage points in just 2 weeks!

Obama simply gave the Republicans a series of opportunities to look really bad on the public stage. And they ran with it.

And as soon as Obama stepped up to his bully pulpit, he created a sense of clarity and purpose.

Somehow, this doesn't strike me as futility.