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It could have worked. The problem always was that Obama was so enthralled with the concept of bipartisanship that he didn't listen to his opponents when they to
by KerrAvon 4y ago
It could have worked. The problem always was that Obama was so enthralled with the concept of bipartisanship that he didn't listen to his opponents when they told the press *in 2009* that their only goal for the next four years was to destroy his presidency.
So he always bent over for the Republicans, often sabotaging things like Obamacare by pre-negotiating with his own administration to remove things he thought the Republicans would dislike.
Of course, the Republicans didn't care what he did. They were going to oppose everything they could get away with opposing. (Their voters did still expect some governance in those days, instead of the full-time vengeance mode they now expect.)
- acdha 4y agoI agree that he put far too much effort into bipartisanship but I do think some of that showed how successful all of the attacks on him as some kind of radical extremist were. He felt, probably not incorrectly, that there were a fairly large number of people who were willing to give him a chance but would potentially turn on him if he pushed quickly enough that the “radical black activist” attacks started to get traction. Contrast with Joe Biden, who is an old white guy with working class roots and half a century in politics with a solid, non-threatening track record. There’s almost nothing he could do which will get that many people to be like “I thought I knew him but not this”.