"I hope they've learned a lesson" is the kind of phrase that applies when one fails to get what they want. It's like telling the coach who just won the Super Bowl, "If you do things differently next time, you'll get a better result."

One of the big revelations of this election was how completely and utterly without dignity John McCain is. I assumed that, after the barrage of voter criticism ending in an electoral thumping, he'd sit down and shut up for a while just out of a sense of self-preservation. But he, like the vice presidential candidate he chose and loves to blame for his shellacking, seems incapable of understanding how he comes off to everyone else.

As for Obama learning a lesson about how to engage the bad-faith Republicans in Congress, no doubt he did learn quite a bit from this sequence of events. But I continue to believe not that everything happened was part of a master plan--Obama made some serious missteps--but that he correctly gauged that he could not begin his presidency by failing to seriously try to engage them.

The public by overwhelming margins now understands that he tried hard and Republicans didn't. This was a front-end investment that will have big payoffs down the road when Obama and the Dems go around the GOP to do what needs to be done and what citizens asked them to do. That, at least, was part of Obama's strategy, and it was absolutely right.

at this point, there is a republican cult that has been 44 years in the making and there's the rest of the country. and i think the rest of the country now has a very clear idea of just how deranged the cult is.

By my count, Obama needed three Senate Republican votes and that's what he got. And confirmation that McCain is a shithead. What's the problem?

Then-Senator John McPOW October 2008: "My friends, we've got them right where they want them!"

Still-Senator John McPOW February 2009: "I hope they've learned a lesson."

Yes, Republicans are delusional assholes. Next!

And this:

The public by overwhelming margins now understands that he tried hard and Republicans didn't. This was a front-end investment that will have big payoffs down the road when Obama and the Dems go around the GOP to do what needs to be done and what citizens asked them to do. That, at least, was part of Obama's strategy, and it was absolutely right.

Saves me the trouble of adding anything else.

One of the most amazing things about John McCain is how devoid of policy expertise he is.

He had a few good advisers at the top but would have picked absolutely atrocious economic advisers.

He had a bad grasp of policy on the campaign, a veering and unstable set of Hail-Mary proposals as his numbers went down (gas tax holiday), and after the stock market crash he just imploded with bad idea after bad idea (buy up all the bad mortgages! eliminate the Earned Income Tax Credit!)

This just illuminates one of the sadder aspects of democracy, that the skills required to get into a position to lead can be absolutely different from the skills required to actually lead. Sometimes, as with Herbert Hoover, one can actually be a great administrator but a bad executive..

One can only imagine what the response to the financial meltdown would have been.

In the best case, Obama was just giving the Republicans enough rope to hang themselves. He may have succeeded in that, but the media are still carrying water for the Republicans -- the Blue Dogs, the filibuster and the media are the Republicans' last bastions, and after 2010 it will probably be down to just the Blue Dogs and the media.

He really gave up too much on the stimulus, though, considering what he got for it (three votes). I tend to believe that Obama really believed the postpartisan nonsense he campaigned on, which certainly makes me think less of him. But then again, in order not to seem like a complete fake he had to maneuver the Republicans into making themselves look bad. And if ever really believed that stuff, hopefully he's learned by now.

Obama had to try (as disappointing as it seemed to be for many here) and show the non politically involved public and independents that he went to the Repubs on good faith. The Repubs in Congress had their chance and they shit on the gesture of goodwill.

One of the things I really like about Obama is that he actually changes tactics/strategy when they don't work and isn't afraid to admit mistakes.

I suspect that from now on we will be hearing the whine of the spoiled brat from now on about how the poor pitiful Repugs were railroaded by that mean ole "Muslim" in the white house, traitorous Repub governors and what happened to bipartisanship.

John McCain is total f*cking idiot. He was able to fool many of us for so long because everyone in the Republican Party was an even bigger idiot.

But now that he has nothing to lose, we see his true colors. He's a mean spirited little man, without one decent idea in his head, and at age 73 still feels the need to strut like a peacock.

What a bullet we dodged on Nov. 4.

Actually, McCain's comments remind me more of Monty Python's black knight. The drubbing his party received in the last elections were merely a flesh wound. And if Obama wants more, McCain will bite his legs off.

The groundwork for "bipartisanship attained" is being laid, even as I write this response. Obama will garner bipartisanship---with the People. He knows this; Rahm knows this; the rotpublicans, cowering in their own heinous shadows of former political superiority, know this as well. In future political contests, rotpublicans who win will win by ever-decreasing margins, while others will lose as the coalition of the People Willing to Assume Responsibility gains strength.

The rotpublican party now consists of dead ideologues walking....

Obama got what he wanted

Because of the Senate changes, the White House is projecting 3.5 million jobs instead of 4 million. Other groups are projecting even less (Moody's Economy 2.2 M, Macroeconomic Advisors 2.3M, Global Insight 2.5 M). All agree that the Senate compromise is the reason. In other words, for 2-3 cloture votes, Obama had to give up a lot of jobs. And what did the Republicans get? Tax relief for people making over $100,000.

Obama's been good to reach out. I think his general decency, civility, and lack of extreme partisianship is good. Remember Obama and Lieberman? Joe Klein notes that Lieberman was key to lobbying (I assume within the Blue Dog group) for this bill.

http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2009/02/14/joe-lieberman-stimulus-hero/

Obama's magnamity paid off, and I think some of us (me included) need to see the benefits of maintaining an open hand even when the other side keeps acting childish.

Of course, Obama should play it smart too. Keep pushing the agenda he campaigned on. Use Podesta and Rahmbo to push bills uphill, against the tide, whatever. Get it done--get it done with that great Obama magnanimous smile.

Something which strikes me again and again, is the fact that the majority of republicans who say something - anything - in public, are such a bunch of complete flaming assholes. Why is this ?

Fuck him...seriously what self parody

How anyone looked at McCain and saw a leader is beyond me. Isn't he the guy who bragged about his bipartisan cred?

It's very gratifying that Obama is coming to AZ to promote the stimulus. He's already won, yet he'll be here in the Kyl/McCain home state.

Red states need stimulus too, and for damn sure we need better representation in the senate.

Leadership? $789billion Stimulus passed
Respecting the President of the United States? Priceless

It's a good strategy for Obama and the Democrats to narrow the focus where bi-partisan cooperation can be built around mutual self-interest. It was always overly-optimistic to build such cooperation around a common philosophical commitment towards changing the destructive polarization that's existed in Washington for some time.

It's important to understand the difference between partisanship and polarization. Partisanship means fighting for ideas you believe in and for the party that embraces it. But it also implies the willingness to compromise -- to get half a loaf when the full loaf is beyond reach. Polarization -- of the kind Gingrich and his reactionary Southern Republicans brought in in 1994 and Karl Rove perfected six years later -- is an entirely different animial. It's divide and conquer, scortched earth approach isn't really politics. It's war carried on by other means. Politics based on wedge issue polarization is like religiously-based politics -- both are hostile to compromise in any form.

So, Obama had an uphill climb from the outset when he sought bi-partisanship with a party whose controlling base is still committed to polarization as a political strategy and party program. But all was not lost on Obama's early attempt to bridge the partisan divide -- even on the difficult issue like the stimulus. It forced Republicans to show their cards and gave us a clear picture of their true motivations and political strategy for the next four years. They remain a radical and ideological party of the right for whom any compromise with "the enemy at home" will be extremely difficult. That was especially so on the stimulus since Republicans showed this week they are fundamentally committed towards rebranding themselves as the small-government GOP party of 30 years ago. Nothing -- not even a national economic crisis -- will move them off that position.

It's a fundamentally self-destructive posture, in my view, at a time when the American public have clearly expressed a strong preference for an entirely different direction -- for a less ideological, more pragmatic "solve the problem" style of politics. But there is an institutional, structural reason the GOP has moved so far to the right since Reagan -- costing the party representation in entire sections of the country, such as New England. The root of the GOP's problem is that a dedicated, radically conservative movement, has achieved its 50 year old dream of capturing one of our two major parties for its own ideological, culture and regime changing mission.

It is not about to allow a little thing like another Great Depression stand in its way of achieving that vision. Even if it has to take the GOP down with it, as odds are it will.

At a secluded ranch in Arizona on November 5, 2008, John McCain smiled smugly to his running mate, Sarah Palin. Gesturing to the triumphant President Obama on the TV screen, McCain tells Palin, "I hope they've learned a lesson!"

"Voters expressed a preference, picked one over the other, and so the majority party is moving ahead with its agenda, while the minority party screams bloody murder. That's pretty much how it's supposed to work."

That's how it's supposed to work during normal times. But, during times of national crisis like a terrorist attack or economic collapse, the parties are supposed to put some of that aside to get something done for the security of the country, and the majority party that was picked by the voters, usually takes the lead.
And of course the media, which is owned by the republicans, will frame it whichever way works best for the republicans, which is exactly what they're doing now. The way they tell it, Obama FAILED by reaching out to republicans and got so little support in return, while the republicans are strong and principaled. If the situation was reversed and there was a republican president, the media narrative would be the president graciously reached out to the democrats, who just got tromped in the election, and the democrats slapped him in the face in return, while the country faces a grave crisis.

What Obama has to do is to use the bullt pulpit, and tell the american public exactly how the republicans are obstructing what needs to be done, that they want to carry on with the same failed policies - that they are more interseted in positioning themselves for the next election, rather than saving jobs - and they're abusing the filibuster in the senate to obstruct. And Obama can point out, that all you have to do is listen to their leader, rush limbaugh who wants Obama, and by extension the country, to fail. And he needs to relentlessly hammer this point.

I think one of the other things Rahm and Obama need to do is invite the Blue Dog Dems in both the House and Senate over for lunch, then lock the doors and chew their sorry asses out. They had no business negotiating with the GOP on ANYTHING!!! Rahm was right, they allowed Bi-partisanship to over ride the fact that they won.

To paraphrase: BMA (Bi-Partisanship my *ss!!!!)

Gregg's withdrawal from the cabinet encapsulates what's wrong with the Republicans, and perhaps why they lost in November. They give a lot of lip service to lofty ideals like bipartisanship, but when it comes down to reality they just don't have the stomach for it. I can't help but think that this is what average people have taken away from the past 3 weeks; that Obama has been making these huge efforts and the Republicans just don't have the stomach for what bipartisanship really takes. OK, fine. Obama should carry on with his agenda.

That's pretty much how it's supposed to work.

Yes, but for it to work that way, both sides have to argue in good faith. As has been documented here and elsewhere time and again, Republicans don't. And how can they? Their agenda would be unpopular if they were honest about it, and their failures would be rejected if they were honest enough to own them, and are rejected when they become too obvious to ignore.

I am glad I hit refresh. I was geting ready to say about what Gregory did but less concisely.

No, it isn't "fine" that Republicans abdicated their responsibilities in a time of crisis. Adult legislators in an oppo party would say, "You know, I don't think this is the way to go, but we have to do something so we'll try the winner's plan." It's okay with me if they want to get up there and propose Flag Day bills or cat-registering legislation or some other nonsense, but the future of the world's economy is no venue for political posturing.

As for Obama being nice to jerks, don't think it isn't working out. Apparently my boyfriend Joe Lieberman was the "stimulus hero" who got the Maine ladies to get with the program (tho not, of course, before they did what they could do water it down). I doubt that would have happened if Obama & Reid had treated him the way I wanted them to.

The Constant Weader at www.RealityChex.com

The Center for American Progress' John Podesta said Obama and his team probably had unrealistic expectations -- he called it "wishful thinking"

I'm not so sure they did. Emanuel was in the House for a decade, he knows what Republicans there are like as much as anyone. I think the White House may have been surprised by the way Republicans in the House came together unanimously, and the way they got more and more ridiculous as time passed, but they expected this to be more a PR effort than anything. They probably thought the PR effort would actually garner a few votes too. At least it was partially successful and allows them to reposition themselves in the future. Not a bad accomplishment less than a month in.

McCain is like Captain Queeg looking for the strawberries ..... in McCain's case he is looking for his Soul that he sold to the devil during his campaign ...

The on-going basis for this crisis is that there are far too many Republicans in Washington.

That said, as a lefty, I recognize that neither party has an enduring corner on wisdom. The country has benefited from modest swings of the pendulum between governing philosophies. But this only works if the party out of power works to moderate swings in the other direction, not to obstruct the function of government unless legislation reflects their ideals.

when Republicans were in power, they defined bipartisanship as "give Bush what he wants & we won't brand you a traitor. "Fag" maybe, but not "traitor." Until, of course, the next time we need you to do what we want." Even after 2006 this is how they defined political compromise. Bullying is all they know & all they have, and whilst many in their base might like to bully others, you know what they like more? MAKING A F@*&ING LIVING!

So what's a Repub in Congress to do? They've spent years screming how ineffectual & worthless Dems are. I honestly believe they'd never see this change in power in their lifetimes, they're just that dumb & are now lashing out like trapped animals. I feel bad for their constituents, less-so for the rabid right who still believes their hoo-hah. Otherwise, it's as glorious a repudiation of a disaeased philosophy as McCarthy's "at long last sir have you no shame" moment.

The opposition party is not there to oppose simply for the sake of opposing. If Arlen Specter is to be believed, a significant portion of Republican senators recognized the necessity of the stimulus bill and would like to have voted for it--but they did not, because their party was more important to them than their country. That is not a sign of a healthy political system.

It's not just that their goals are different. It's that they don't negotiate in good faith, and they haven't for years. They are liars, pure and simple.

I've been around since before JFK and I thought I remembered times when the two parties worked together to achive common goals. Am I dreaming that, making up stuff from whole cloth?

This "opposition party" stuff is entirely wrong. First off, they obviously DON'T have philosophical differences with this bill. They fully realize that getting these funds to their districts will help improve the economy. Otherwise, they wouldn't be happy to accept the funds. So they agree with the philosophy completely. Their only concern here was political. The Limbaughs poisoned the well and these guys can only go along with what Limbaugh is forcing them to do.

But secondly, democracy is NOT tyranny of the majority. This isn't how it's supposed to work. Because Republicans weren't able to actually stop the bill. And that means that they might as well not be in Congress. Because neither of my Texan senators would ever support this bill, I effectively have no representative in the Senate. In other words, Rush Limbaugh disenfranchised me and these bozos allowed them to do it.

That's not how democracy is supposed to work. It's not supposed to be that 51% of the country gets to tell the other 49% what to do. Nor is it about 75% telling the other 25% what to do. It's about giving everyone a voice in how their government governs them, so they feel they have control over their own lives. That's the entire purpose of democracy; not to pick the most popular leaders, but to give people an ownership stake in their government. That's not what's happening. The only Republicans in Congress who have any voice now are the three Senators who broke ranks. The rest of them might as well not be in Congress and their constituents might as well live in a dictatorship. And that's exactly how they'll feel. This isn't our fault, but to act as if this is how democracy was intended to work is completely false. By making their constituents voiceless, they are destroying democracy and hurting America.

Voters expressed a preference, picked one over the other, and so the majority party is moving ahead with its agenda, while the minority party screams bloody murder. That's pretty much how it's supposed to work.

That is not how democracy is supposed to work. Democracy is supposed to concentrate power in the middle of the ideological spectrum, not lurch between two poles every other election cycle. Our horse-and-buggy version of democracy is what got us into this mess. Modern democracies need modern tools, like eliminating gerrymandering and enacting instant-runoff voting.

Claiming that partisanship is the way it is "supposed to work" represents an astonishingly unenlightened viewpoint from those who claim to be "progressive."

the majority party is moving ahead with its agenda, while the minority party screams bloody murder. That's pretty much how it's supposed to work.

When I was younger, my dad would remind me that, whichever side you were on, the other party wasn't evil: that both parties wanted what was best for the country, but they just saw it from different perspectives.

IMHO, that's how it should be. But it's clearly not true anymore. There's just no way to believe that the GOP really believes no stimulus (other than tax cuts, of course) is what the country needs right now.

I think an opposition party should oppose, on any issue where they see the national interest being better served by their own preferred policies. That's what politics is all about. But if they've got no answers of their own, and are opposing because they're putting their hopes of future success ahead of the common good, then screw 'em.

Oh yeah, Brer John, Obama learned his lesson all right.

Just not the lesson you thought you were teaching him.

I think the idea that bipartisanship has failed or that the Administration has had a lesson to learn from the last few weeks to be a rather weak argument and one that only someone from the chattering class inside the beltway could voice or even hold. We might have expected the package to pick up a number of Republican votes in both bodies but that was extremely unlikely when the leadership in each House threw a major, strong-armed effort into making sure it was a party-line vote even against the wishes of their usually powerful business allies. The party lines held even against the personal wishes of a number of Republican members to vote for the package. You can get confirmation on that from Spector's statments today.

But was does bipartisanship mean? To me it means respect for others, a willingness to listen, and a willingness to make an accommodation in the spirit of compromise. All of that the majority of Americans see in President Obama and that's what, in part, supports his high poll numbers and the personal support he has in the populace even among some Republican party members. Without that spirit of bipartisanship, as so defined, he would not have won this unprecedented legislative victory. I think his approach has been totally vindicated. Those who think bipartisanship has suffered a defeat or has been misplaced just have no clue what it meant from the beginning to Barack or the people and don't realize the tremendous political victory that has just been achieved.

John McCain:

"You kicked my ass in the election and you kicked my ass on the stimulus bill. Had enough? Learned your lesson?"